Faye Dunaway sued by ex-assistant

OHMYGOSSIP — Faye Dunaway is being sued by her former assistant.
The 78-year-old actress has been subjected to legal action from Michael Rocha, who alleged she was verbally abusive and then fired him when he complained.
Michael began working for ‘Tea At Five’ – the stage production the screen legend was recently fired from – in April and was paid $1,500 a week for duties including getting Fay to rehearsals, shopping for her and encouraging her to take her medication.
According to court papers obtained by RadarOnline.com, the former employee alleged the ‘Mommie Dearest’ actress “regularly and relentlessly subjected plaintiff to abusive demeaning tirades” and used the fact he was homosexual to “demean and humiliate him at work”.
He also alleged Faye called him and other staff “little gay people” and recorded her referring to him as “a little homosexual boy”.
Michael reported the alleged verbal slurs to the production’s general manager but he was fired two weeks later as executives told him their lead star was “not comfortable” with him anymore.
Faye has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes a few weeks after it was revealed Faye had parted ways with the one-woman show – which is based on the memoir of Katherine Hepburn, ‘Me: Stories From My Life’ – during its run at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Theatre.
Producers Scott Beck and Ben Feldman said in a statement: “The producers of ‘Tea at Five’ announced today that they have terminated their relationship with Faye Dunaway.
“Plans are in development for the play to have its West End debut early next year with a new actress to play the role of Katharine Hepburn.”
Though they gave no further comment, the New York Post newspaper alleged the 78-year-old actress had slapped crew members backstage, causing a performance to be cancelled shortly before it was due to begin earlier this month.
The veteran star was furious when the show was cancelled and allegedly began “verbally abusing” the crew, while she was also said to have been frequently late for rehearsal and when she did arrive, banned anyone – including the director and playwright – from looking at her.
Playwright Matthew Lombardo shared the report – which also alleged Faye was fed her lines through an earpiece, despite having a script for six months – on his Facebook page and added the caption: “Ummm. Yup.”
In 1994, Andrew Lloyd Webber fired Faye from a Los Angeles production of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and claimed her singing voice wasn’t up to the role.
He was sued by the actress and the pair later settled out of court.

Source: Herald Mail Media
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