Lady Gaga settles with former assistant over unpaid overtime
Maybe Lady Gaga is the Queen of the Universe, but the courts rule that even queens need to pay their assistants overtime.
October 23, 2013 at 07:09 AM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
Maybe Lady Gaga is the “Queen of the Universe,” but even queens need to pay their assistants overtime.
Lady Gaga's lawyers didn't show their poker faces after the pop star's former assistant filed suit alleging unpaid back pay, but now, they won't have to. Gaga has settled out of court with former assistant Jennifer O'Neill before the case was scheduled to go to trial in U.S. district court within two weeks.
O'Neill had claimed Gaga owed her 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime. Based on O'Neill's $75,000 annual salary, she believed Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, owed her around $393,000.
U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe agreed that O'Neill had a case, ordering the suit to proceed to trial on Nov. 4. Gardephe said that O'Neill's “on-call” schedule, which required her to be there for Gaga seven days a week, 24 hours a day, meant that she potentially qualified for overtime protection.
Perhaps Lady Gaga settled because she thought she couldn't top her incredible 200-page statement in response to the initial suit. In part, she claimed, “I am going to tell you exactly what ******* happened, so that the judge can read on this transcript exactly what's going on, which is my ex-best friend is a ******* hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn't earn.”
In her initial statement, Gaga also claimed that O'Neill was also jealous, stating, “SHE thinks she's just like the Queen of the Universe. And, you know what? She didn't want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I'm the Queen of the Universe every day.”
Now maybe that a settlement has been reached, although financial terms have not been disclosed, O'Neill can afford to live like the Queen of the Universe for a while.
For more celebrities embroiled in legal trouble, make sure to check out these recent celebrity suits making news.
Maybe Lady Gaga is the “Queen of the Universe,” but even queens need to pay their assistants overtime.
Lady Gaga's lawyers didn't show their poker faces after the pop star's former assistant filed suit alleging unpaid back pay, but now, they won't have to. Gaga has settled out of court with former assistant Jennifer O'Neill before the case was scheduled to go to trial in U.S. district court within two weeks.
O'Neill had claimed Gaga owed her 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime. Based on O'Neill's $75,000 annual salary, she believed Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, owed her around $393,000.
U.S. District Judge
Perhaps Lady Gaga settled because she thought she couldn't top her incredible 200-page statement in response to the initial suit. In part, she claimed, “I am going to tell you exactly what ******* happened, so that the judge can read on this transcript exactly what's going on, which is my ex-best friend is a ******* hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn't earn.”
In her initial statement, Gaga also claimed that O'Neill was also jealous, stating, “SHE thinks she's just like the Queen of the Universe. And, you know what? She didn't want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I'm the Queen of the Universe every day.”
Now maybe that a settlement has been reached, although financial terms have not been disclosed, O'Neill can afford to live like the Queen of the Universe for a while.
For more celebrities embroiled in legal trouble, make sure to check out these recent celebrity suits making news.
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