Personal Assistant Sues Lady Gaga For 7,168 Unpaid Overtime Hours

by Julia Rubin | 12:30 pm, December 26th, 2011

Lady Gaga‘s personal assistant is suing her — but what for?

Here’s the case by the numbers: 41-year-old Jennifer O’Neill worked for Gaga for 13 months. Her salary netted her $75,000 a year, but she alleges Gaga owes her $380,000 for the 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime she worked. (That’s about 18 hours of overtime per day, weekends included, over a 13 month period.) She is also seeking unspecified damges.

In court papers, O’Neill explains she had to wait on Gaga all day (and all night), every day. She was tasked with “ensuring the promptness of a towel following a shower and serving as a personal alarm clock to keep [Gaga] on schedule” as well as “ensuring the availability of chosen outfits” in “stadiums, private jets, fine hotel suites, yachts, ferries, trains and tour buses.” To which we say…well, duh.

The life of a celebrity personal assistant is anything but glamorous. Such a job is incredibly demanding, and while we argue O’Neill should have negotiated for a higher salary upon hiring or made sure her contract involved an overtime clause, her duties don’t seem that outrageous. Of course, Gaga’s spokeswoman dismissed the case as “completely without merit”. And honestly, we think we agree.

[NYP]

Jennifer O'Neill Lady Gaga Lady Gaga assistant lady gaga lawsuit

Ylime

Has she seen the Devil Wears Prada??……
Anonymous

Really? I think everyone deserves to be paid for time worked. Regardless if it’s “expected” that celebrities have wild demands… How does that translate to oh well an assistant has to suck it up??? The woman deserves to be paid. Period. There is no such thing as free labor, wtf. This article is annoying. I’d like to see Julia work countless hours without pay and still retain her sense of worth.
Jessica

She was paid for her time worked-she had a yearly salary. She wasn’t paid by the hour, so it’s irrelevant how many hours she worked. If she had a problem with her pay, she should have said something during the 13 months she was actually working for her.
Anonymous

Very few jobs legally qualify for work without lunch breaks. Just because she’s lady gaga doesn’t mean the woman should have had to tolerate such work conditions. Lady gaga’s previous assistant also sued. Obviously most people would think working for a celebrity would really help their resume but under such work conditions it’s not even worth it. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement… But much easier to see afterward that she didn’t earn a lot. Doing the calculation the assistant earned about minimum wage…

Anyway, all I’m saying is that people don’t swerve to work under such conditions so I think the lawsuit is with merit. Plus people sue after the fact ALL THE TIME. Corporations get sued for not abiding by the law with regards to pay, breaks, etc after.
http://www.FindCelebrityJobs.com Celebrity Assistant

As an agent for celebrity personal assistants, I can tell you right now that the overtime needs to be negotiated and included in the contract.
Omgz_rofl_wtf

During of the explanation of the assistant’s duties, I kept screaming in my head: THIS is your JOB. THOUSANDS of other people are lining up right now who want YOUR JOB.
Sharonbelknap

The woman is not sueing Lady GaGa. She is sueing the company she worked for …the actual complaint is posted. Why are all the headlines screaming the wrong thing?
bb

ugh, i couldnt imagine being the personal assistant to such a diva pop star.
id probably end up jumping out of the private jet.

Personal Assistant Sues Lady Gaga For 7,168 Unpaid Overtime Hours

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