The look keeps getting worse and uglier for E! Entertainment (DStv 124) with E! that has fired a producer who has been working on its red carpet coverage for the past 12 years and who says she was replaced by a man because she allowed Eva Longoria on-air to slam E! about its lack of equal pay for Catt Sadler.
Amidst Hollywood's #MeToo movement and controversy swirling around Ryan Seacrest with allegations of sexual harassment that's not going away, The New York Times reports that E! fired producer Aileen Gram-Moreno for not properly sanitising and censoring E!'s coverage of celebrities like Eva Longoria who at the Golden Globe awards called E! out over its trash treatment of Catt Sadler.
Aileen Gram-Moreno says she was supposed to prevent clips from being broadcast on the NBCUniversal channel that was seen globally - including South Africa and Africa, of other stars and Eva Longoria who at the Golden Globe awards said "We support gender equity and equal pay. And we hope that E! follows the lead with Catt as well. We stand with you, Catt."
Aileen Gram-Moreno has now filed a complaint with America's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying that she has been unfairly terminated and replaced by a man.
In her complaint, Aileen Gram-Moreno reveals how E! allegedly pre-censors its red carpet coverage to prevent celebrities from saying things E! and NBCUniversal don't want viewers to hear.
Aileen Gram-Moreno says that after Debra Messing sharply criticised E! over its unequal pay with Catt Sadler, E! executives told her to scan all interviews before broadcast to "weed out" any further mentions of Catt Sadler.
"The said, if there's any mention of Catt Sadler in the preshow, make sure you flag it. Aileen Gram-Moreno told The New York Times that E! is "censoring celebrities; it’s just not a good idea in my humble opinion. But it wasn’t my decision."
Aileen Gram-Moreno in her complaints says she was fired 5 days after the Golden Globes from all upcoming shows she had been booked for, including the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Grammys and the Oscars. "No-one discussed the issue with me before making the decision to terminate me."
Adam Stotsky, E! president, admitted to The New York Times that E! pre-screened and wanted to know ahead of time about any Catt Sadler mentions and said "We don’t agree with Debra Messing’s assertion" and that E! "is not in the business of being a megaphone for an inaccurate story."
Adam Stotsky told The New York Times that Aileen Gram-Moreno was fired because "of a pattern of poor performance".
Weirdly E! and NBCUniversal never once in the past 12 years complained about Aileen Gram-Moreno's work, and actually gave her a performance -based raise 5 years ago.
E! in a statement says "For the past decade Aileen Gram-Moreno was a freelancer who worked an average of 20 days per year solely for our red carpet coverage. After the Golden Globes, she was asked not to return due to job performance issues. Following an attempt to force E! to pay for her silence Aileen Gram-Moreno is now spreading misleading and inaccurate information."
Aileen Gram-Moreno’s attorney, Katherine Atkinson in a statement says "In the 12 years Aileen has been working on red carpet shows for E! they never once raised a performance issue."
"That is a convenient excuse for covering up attempts to silence women speaking out. Employers often attack women speaking out about discrimination - so I am disappointed in E! but not surprised."
"E! can’t have it both ways. They support their position that they were not censoring references to Catt Sadler by pointing to the Eva Longoria interview. But they fired my client for failing to censor that very interview."
"If you attempt to censor, and then fire the person for not catching the speech you intended to censor for letting it go through, you can’t then claim that you aren’t so bad after all because you 'let' it air. Their argument defies logic."
