Archive for the 'Assistants in the News' Category

John Galliano Became a Racist Because His Assistant Died

Former Christian Dior designer John Galliano was fired from his post earlier this year when video emerged of Galliano making anti-Semitic remarks in a Paris cafe. Now, Galliano is on trial in France (making such comments is illegal there). Among his rebuttals? He says that following the death of his personal assistant and confidant Steven Robinson in 2007, his life began to fall apart. Like many creative people, Galliano counted on having someone between him and the money people at Dior, and that person was Robinson. In his defense, Galliano says that he became depressed after Robinson’s death and that having to deal directly with business people started to stress him out, eventually driving him to drink.

Here’s the thing: when I was an assistant, my boss relied on me heavily. He didn’t know how to dial a telephone or turn on a computer without my help. But when I quit, he didn’t go on a bender or start hurling anti-Semitic comments at other people. He just hired another assistant. I understand that Galliano and his assistant were also close friends, and that dealing with a loss like that cannot be easy. But if Galliano was just such a special snowflake that any interaction with non-creatives made him stressed, he should have hired someone else to fulfill the assistant part of Robinson’s job. And anti-Semitism is not an appropriate way to deal with grief. Get some therapy. Take time off from your job to clear your head. Go on antidepressants. But making racist comments isn’t okay, even when you’re dealing with pain. And, just like a million other bosses, John Galliano is blaming everything on his assistant.

Model Erin O’Connor’s Ex-Assistant Accused of Stealing

Supermodel Erin O’Connor’s former personal assistant, Michelle Knox-Brown, is being charged with embezzlement after allegedly stealing more than £45,000 from her employer. The money reportedly came from a combination of charges on O’Connor’s credit cards, petty cash, and cab fares. Knox-Brown’s trial is slated to begin in London in March, and O’Connor has agreed to testify against her former assistant.

An Assistant Story Fit for a Soap Opera

OK, I couldn’t make this story up if I tried: a Venezuela-born, Mexico-based telenovela star named Gabriela Spanic hired a woman, Marcia Celeste Fernandez Babio, whose job was to spy on Spanic’s estranged sister. When the twin sister caught on, Spanic hired Babio to be her full time live-in personal assistant. Fast forward a couple of months, and every single member of Spanic’s household started to get sick – except for Babio. Turns out that Babio was gradually poisoning the entire family with small amounts of ammonium sulphate (an ingredient in rat poison!). Luckily, they figured out something was up and nobody died, but that is some fucked up shit. I mean, why don’t we just add some kids who were switched at birth and a cloning subplot while we’re at it?

Should Lindsay Lohan’s Ex-Assistant Rat Her Out?

Lindsay Lohan’s assistant Eleanore quit her job recently. Now, she’s reportedly being offered five-figure deals to sell her story to tabloids. While Eleanore is allegedly not sure what she’s going to do, I thought we could take a nice little trip down memory lane and reflect on what happened to some of Lindsay’s other former assistants.

  • Lindsay Ratowsky left LiLo to go work for Jessica Biel. LiLo was not happy.
  • Back when Lindsay had two assistants, the second one (Tarin) quit. Tarin’s mom came to pick her up from Lindsay’s house and as they drove away Lindsay gave chase in her car, and … well… we all remember how that ended.
  • Kate Major went on to work at Star magazine, have sex with Jon Gosselin, leave her job at Star to be with Jon Gosselin, and then got dumped. She is currently engaged to Lindsay’s dad, Michael Lohan. I think I need to gargle with Listerine after having written this.
  • Jenni Muro worked for Lindsay for a long time, saved her from drowning, and is still one of her close friends. Also, she is probably qualified for sainthood now.

I don’t know if this answers the question about Eleanore, but I would not be shocked if she says yes. I think it depends on what she wants to do careerwise after this. Lindsay’s a total idiot if she didn’t make Eleanore sign an NDA, especially after all the assistant drama she’s had in the past. If Eleanore really wants to be a PA for another celebrity, talking about Lindsay in the press will not endear her to future celebrity employers. But if she’s more of an Alli Sims type who is just trying to launch her own clothing line or promote her new single, then I predict it’ll be about ten seconds before Eleanore signs on the dotted line and lands herself a photo shoot in Life & Style. Mark my words.

MMA Fighter Arrested for Choking Assistant

Kim Couture, an mixed martial arts fighter and the ex-wife of UFC star Randy Couture, has been arrested on charges that she choked her personal assistant. Police were called to Couture’s home in Las Vegas and saw her choking her PA. She has already been released on bail. I’ll bring you more as this story develops.

Japan Bans Public Employees from Growing Facial Hair

The next time I complain about the dress code at work, I’ll keep this tidbit in mind: the Japanese town of Isesaki has banned civil employees from having facial hair. Beards and mustaches were deemed “unpleasant.” But here’s my favorite part of the article:

It was announced as part of annual casual office dress rules, which allow male staff to work without jackets and ties in summer in order to cut down on air-conditioning and reduce global warming.

The next time my boss gives me shit for wearing something low-cut I’ll just say that I’m doing my part to prevent global warming. Everybody wins!

Do Not Ever Apply to Be Steven Seagal’s Assistant

In one of the more fucked-up things I’ve ever come across while running this site, today Steven Seagal was accused of sex trafficking. A woman named Kayden Nguyen is suing the former action star, claiming that she applied for a job as his executive assistant only to find out that Steven defined “assistant” a little bit more like most people define “escort.” From her lawsuit:

Upon arriving to the job, she claims that Steven was also keeping” two young female Russian ‘Attendants’ on staff who were available for his sexual needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Kayden alleges in her suit that though he had these two girls, on the first night of the job, Steven treated her “as his sex toy”, allegedly pushing his hands under her skirt, fondling her breasts and forcing his hand down her pants. Though she complained about the indecency the next morning, it happened again the following day. Along with the sexual assault, she claims Steven forced her to “consume illegal pulls.” [I assume this is "pills."] She is now suing him for over $1 million.

Um, wow. I really have no words. Well, except “gross.” That is one word.

Graydon Carter’s Assistant Just Got Fed Up

Every assistant has a breaking point. For some, it’s the first time they cry in the bathroom. For others, it’s the day their boss gets physically violent. For Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter’s assistant, Jonathan Keller, it may have been the day he had to make one dinner reservation too many. You see, Carter also owns ultrachic New York City restaurant The Waverly Inn, which is notoriously difficult to get into. Keller’s entire job became managing the list at the Waverly. Gawker has the scoop:

Tipsters tell us that Jonathan Kelly, Graydon’s executive assistant and self-proclaimed “Graydon Carter’s Office,” left recently for an editor’s job at Bloomberg/ BusinessWeek. Kelly—who supposedly wrote VF’s Waverly Inn blog, along with doing other editorial work, was considered a “golden boy.” But that didn’t save him from drudgery. According to our tipster, Kelly “was elevated to editing big-time writers but still had to handle the seating assignments for Waverly and Monkey Bar. That’s what drove him out. Despite being an ‘editor,’ he was still Graydon’s bitch 24/7.”

Mazel tov, Jonathan! I hope you’ve moved on to something better. And if you ever want to dish the dirt, you know how to get ahold of us.

evil boss alert: tyra banks

Tyra Banks announced yesterday that her self-titled talk show would be ending this season. That announcement was reportedly news to the show’s crew, whom she neglected to inform separately. Many of the show’s crew were from L.A., where the show had originally been based before Tyra worked out a deal to get more money for herself if the show was in New York. [In case you're wondering, she did not offer additional pay or moving expenses for the crew who opted to move cross-country with the show.] Now, several former employees have dished to the New York Daily News about Tyra’s reign of terror:

“There had been high turnover of employees for years,” a past crew member says, insisting that many people quit after just a few months because it was “pretty difficult to work for Tyra.”

“She and the higher-ups on the production staff could be extremely brutal,” the source says. “She really is a diva.”

“When the show moved from L.A. to New York, several staffers weren’t even directly told about the change – they heard through the grapevine that it was going to move locations. Even so, a lot of those people gave up their lives on the West Coast so they could continue working for the show. Now they’re out of luck.”

I thought in spirit of today’s post I’d pull some old Tyra-related stories, including the one about the truth behind her “apartment makeovers” and this one about a former assistant suing her. Enjoy!

this week in assistant lawsuits

STA’s mascot, Naomi Campbell, is once again back in the news with some assistant-related drama. However, this time she’s the one suing instead of the one being sued. Naomi brought a suit against her former assistant, Vanessa Frisbee, who allegedly violated her non-disclosure agreement by selling a story about Naomi to a tabloid publication. Instead of waiting for a verdict, Naomi claims she’s “tired of litigation” (excuse me while I laugh hysterically for a minute) and has pulled the plug on the whole trial. That doesn’t come cheap, though – she now has to pay £300,000 for her and Frisbee’s legal fees.

In other European celebrity assistant news, U2 bassist Adam Clayton is pressing charges against his former assistant, Carol Hawkins, whom Adam alleges embezzled €1.8 million from him over the years. From the Irish Times:

Mr Sreenan [Clayton's attorney] said the matter went back to September 2008 when Ms Hawkins – who worked as a housekeeper and personal assistant – had come to Mr Clayton and confessed she had misappropriated €13,000 of his money. He had dealt with this in “a compassionate manner” and had altered his financial arrangements accordingly and kept her on in employment.

However, counsel said it had since emerged that Ms Hawkins, without the authorisation of Mr Clayton, had used his debit and credit cards.

On November 19th last, when allegations were put to her, she had accepted the cards had been used and money taken without Mr Clayton’s authorisation but she had disputed the sums involved, Mr Sreenan said. Her employment had been terminated.

Quite the celebrity assistant drama going on this week! I’m definitely keeping an eye on these two cases. Plus, did you know Adam Clayton used to date Naomi Campbell (see photo)? Isn’t it great when these posts come full circle?