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Business News Legal
Gaga deposition in PA case made public
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 4 February 2013
A deposition made by Lady Gaga as part of a legal dispute with a former PA has gone public thanks to the New York Post, and sees the star getting angry and sweary – despite the formal legal surroundings in which she is speaking – as she responds to allegations made by Jennifer O’Neill, who claims she is owed $380,000 from two stints working with the singer.
O’Neill alleges that Gaga made her work 24/7 when she worked as the singer’s personal assistant, to the extent that she was expected to sleep in her employer’s bed so she would be on constant call.
Says O’Neill: “I was by her side virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That includes sleeping in the same bed with her. Because she did not sleep alone… Unlike anybody else on that tour, I did not have my own hotel room. I was not asked if I wanted my own hotel room. I had no privacy, no chance to talk to any family, no chance to talk to any friends, no chance to have sex if I wanted to have sex. There was no chance to do anything”.
The former PA, who worked with Gaga in 2010, reckons she is owed 7168 hours of overtime, nearly 300 days worth, because of the allegedly constant demands made by the singer while O’Neill was in her employ. The claimant reckons that equates to $380,000.
But in her sworn deposition in response to O’Neill’s allegations, Gaga hit out forcefully, claiming her former PA was never qualified to do that job, that she was no good at it, that she was never offered overtime, and that she should have been grateful for the $75,000 a year salary she was paid and the party lifestyle being on the Lady’s team offered.
According to the Post, Gaga, who calls O’Neill a “fucking hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn”, tells the lawyers who were surrounding her at the time: “This whole case is bullshit, and you know it. I’m quite wonderful to everybody that works for me, and I am completely aghast to what a disgusting human being you [O’Neill] have become to sue me like this. Because she slept in Egyptian cotton sheets every night, in five-star hotels, on private planes, eating caviar, partying with [photographer] Terry Richardson all night, wearing my clothes, asking YSL [Yves Saint Laurent] to send her free shoes without my permission, using my YSL discount without my permission”.
Dissing O’Neill’s work, Gaga continued: “She would only open a couple of [my 20 odd] bags, and it was very stressful for me because on my off days I couldn’t really have a day off because, you know, I weigh 115 pounds, and I was trying to move these huge, big luggages all by myself in the room, and I did it all the time. By the way, she was asleep until midday most of the time, so I was very often waking up and moving my own luggage and doing shit by myself, and it was – it was a problem that I had”.
On O’Neill’s workload, while Gaga conceded that she required her PA to be available at various times throughout the day and night, the total amount of work done still equated to an eight hour a day job, she insisted, hence her unwillingness to offer overtime.
It remains to be seen if the case reaches court.
