Vin Diesel was just accused of sexual assault by a former assistant and now the actor is denying the allegations.
02.12.2023 - 04:41 / deadline.com
HBO and Bill Maher’s production company are seeking to toss out a sexual harassment claim that is part of a lawsuit from a former Real Time with Bill Maher staffer.
“While all of Van Ham’s claims are without merit, her sexual harassment claim fails as a matter of law because (1) it is time barred, and (2) she does not plead facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action because she had failed to allege conduct that was both ‘because of’ her sex and also so ‘severe or pervasive’ that it altered the conditions of her employment,” states the defendants’ November 30 filed Demurrer without Motion to Strike to First Amended Complaint (read it here). “Accordingly, Defendants’ Demurrer should be sustained in full and without leave to amend,” the paperwork from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp’s Adam Levin and Sandra Hanian adds.
Not rehired by the HBO chat show in the second half 2020 as Covid-19 protocols opened up production again, long time set photographer Janet Van Ham sued HBO and Maher Live on July 31 for sexual harassment and retaliation under the Federal Housing & Employment Act, as well as wrongful termination.
Calling the long running Real Time a “hostile work environment,” Van Ham, who worked on the show from 2011 to 2020, alleges repeated harassing behavior over the year from one Alex Brooks and other male crew members who were buddies of Brooks. Van Ham also spotlights how the production and CBS security at the Fairfax facility where the show is filmed did little to protect her or pursue her complaints, in her POV.
Even after Van Ham was axed from Real Time (“Van Ham is informed and believes that all former employees of RTWBM were invited back to work, and that she is the only one who was constructively terminated
Vin Diesel was just accused of sexual assault by a former assistant and now the actor is denying the allegations.
Vin Diesel’s former assistant filed a lawsuit today, claiming that the actor sexually battered her during her employment in 2010.The lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles, states that Asta Jonasson was hired by Diesel’s company, One Race, to work for the action in Atlanta, where Fast Five was in production.According to Vanity Fair, here job responsibilities ranged from organising parties, accompanying Diesel to events and ensuring she was in close physical proximity to him to protect him from being photographed with women when in attendance without his girlfriend.The suit details an incident in September 2010, where Jonasson claims that she asked to wait in Diesel’s suite while he entertained some people he had brought back from a nightclub.According to Vanity Fair, the lawsuit claims that once the other women were gone, Diesel “grabbed Ms. Jonasson’s wrists, one with each of his hands, and pulled her onto the bed.”She reportedly asked him to stop, escaped and waited for him to leave.
When Asha Daniels filed her illegal retaliatory termination, racial and sexual harassment lawsuit against Lizzo and her touring team in September, the Grammy winner bashed the action by her former tour wardrobe designer as “a bogus, absurd publicity-stunt.” Now, the ‘Truth Hurts” singer and her Big Grrl Big Touring, Inc. want a state judge to toss the matter out.
Coronation Street viewers have seen several different incarnations of Peter Barlow over the years. And the current actor who plays him, Chris Gascoygne, has been a firm fixture for over two decades. However, Peter is set to bid a heartbreaking farewell to the Cobbles in sad scenes that will air over the festive period.
On Real Time tonight Bill Maher paid tribute to the late, great Norman Lear, who passed away a week-and-a-half ago.
Bill Burr is returning to the stage in 2024.The bald, brash Boston comic is touring all over North America from February through June 2024.“Please come and see me because I’m not good at anything,” the 55-year-old “Mandalorian” actor cracked in an Instagram tour announcement.And if you want to catch the Monday Morning Podcast host’s unhinged rants about anything and everything from politics to drug trips to fast food, tickets are available for all 17 upcoming gigs.Some are fairly affordable, too.At the time of publication, we found tickets going for as low as $48 before fees on Vivid Seats.Other shows had seats starting anywhere from $50 to $186 before fees.Need a few more details before smashing that Bill Burr buy button?We’ve got you covered, ol’ Freckle fans.Here’s everything you need to know and more about Bill Burr’s 2024 tour schedule.All prices listed above are subject to fluctuation.A complete calendar including all tour dates, venues and links to the cheapest tickets available can be found below.(Note: The New York Post confirmed all above prices at the publication time. All prices are in US dollars, subject to fluctuation and include additional fees at checkout.)Vivid Seats is a verified secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.
Caroline Brew editor ChaiFlicks, a streaming platform dedicated to Jewish content, has acquired the rights to all three seasons of Yes Studios‘ “Shtisel,” in addition to the studio’s drama series “Fire Dance.” Season One of “Shtisel” will begin streaming on ChaiFlicks in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand on Dec. 14.
BreAnna Bell Tom Pelphrey has been cast in HBO‘s untitled Task Force series from Brad Ingelsby. The drama is currently in pre-production. The “Guiding Light” alum will play Robbie, a sanitation worker and dreamer who has been knocked around by life, but has always gotten back up again.
Mort Engelberg, a producer of the films Smokey And The Bandit and The Big Easy, has passed away. Engelberg was 86, and he died in Los Angeles in the company of his wife, Helaine Blatt, a success herself as a high-end jewelry broker.
The topics covered on Bill Maher‘s Real Time on Friday were no laughing matter – inflation, crime, the suppression of free speech, the war in Ukraine, antisemitism on campus.
Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Jennifer Lopez is attached to star in a feature adaptation of the 1993 Broadway musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” written and directed by “Dreamgirls” filmmaker Bill Condon, Variety has confirmed with a source close to the production. The music is by legends John Kander and Fred Ebb, based on the novel by Manuel Puig and the book of the musical by Terrence McNally.
There’s an independently financed feature take of the 1992 John Kander and Fred Ebb West End and Broadway musical of Kiss of the Spider Woman that’s being ready to shoot in the spring with Jennifer Lopez set to play the role of Aurora, which Chita Rivera originated on the Great White Way.
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and its former CEO and president were sued today by a woman who alleges she was sexually harassed in a culture that permitted him and others to abuse, exploit and silence victims for years. Read the lawsuit here.
in a legal battle, a resurfaced 2022 Men’s Journal interview with Hauser saw the actor recalling his early days in Hollywood, when he worked with and befriended other up-and-comers, including Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (Hauser appeared in “Good Will Hunting”). Taylor Sheridan was also in their circle. According to Men’s Journal, they got into a fight the second time they met.
Five years after snagging a majority stake in A3, Adam Bold is being accused of “a campaign of chaos” by the Agency’s CEO and president and being a coke addict, a “creeping” leach who created a toxic and hostile workplace, and a spendthrift who is steering “what remains of a once-great company into bankruptcy.”
Easily offended sensibilities and hand-wringing over every pop culture moment seem to characterize the times we’re living in, but such battles have been brewing for centuries. In his new book, “Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and Culture Wars,” Kliph Nesteroff looks at nearly 200 years of controversies to help us understand the present moment. In this excerpt, he looks back at the hysteria around “The Simpsons” and “Beavis and Butthead.”By 1991, Fox had enough credibility to land the broadcast rights to the Emmys.That year, the category for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program was presented by comedian Gilbert Gottfried.
“Writing,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director David Mamet told Bill Maher on Friday’s Real Time, “is just making shit up.”
What’s CBS doing in primetime next weekend? Funny You Should Ask.
EXCLUSIVE: Actor-comedian and writer Jamie Lee (Crashing) and actor-comedian Nikki Glaser (FBoy Island) are set to star in and executive produce Unsettling, a half-hour, single-camera comedy, which is in development for Prime Video, from Warner Bros. TV, Bill Lawrence‘s studio-based Doozer Productions, and Amazon MGM Studios.
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk this week angrily told big advertisers like Disney and Apple who have halted spending on X/Twitter to “go fuck yourself.” Bill Ackman, head of investment holding company Pershing Square Holdings and an investor in X, believes Musk has a point — opining that large marketers employ a double standard in reacting to Musk’s combative rhetoric and “free speech” stance. “I thought @elonmusk’s interview with @andrewrsorkin was one of the great interviews ever,” Ackman wrote in a post on X Thursday evening, referring to Musk’s appearance the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.