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Lady Gaga's Personal Assistant Sues, Says She Was Star's Slave
By
Jen Carlson
Published Dec 25, 2011
Modified Dec 26, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Dec 25, 2011
Modified Dec 26, 2011
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Merry Christmas, Lady Gaga: the NY Post has a special exclusive dedicated to you today! The paper reports that the performer is a "monster to work for," at least according to her former personal assistant, Jennifer O'Neill.
After 13 months of working for the star, the 41-year-old O'Neill is suing for hundreds of thousands of dollars. While on payroll, she handled Gaga's schedule, finances, food, and anything else she needed, day or night. The court papers go into more detail, saying she ensured "the promptness of a towel following a shower and serving as a personal alarm clock to keep [Gaga] on schedule... with no breaks for meals or, at times, even sleep.” Which... kind of sounds like the job description of a personal assistant?
Anyway, O'Neill, who made $75,000/year, filed suit in Manhattan Federal Court last week against Gaga's Mermaid Touring Company (meaning Gaga herself isn't a defendant), claiming she's owed $380,000 for 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime. She's also seeking more for unspecified damages. This follows her former personal assistant's claims (in this book) that she had to sleep with, and sometimes shower with Gaga on most nights because the star refused to be alone.
Gaga's camp says the lawsuit is “completely without merit.”
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Jennifer O'Neill
lady gaga
lawsuit
personal assistant
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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