Women sue rep for station stars
A talent agent for prominent NY1 personalities like Pat Kiernan badmouthed five anchorwomen who sued the network for gender discrimination, a new court filing claims.
United Talent Agency’s Adam Leibner slammed the decision by Roma Torre, Kristen Shaughnessy, Jeanine Ramirez, Vivian Lee and Amanda Farinacci to file a lawsuit, according to a Manhattan Federal Court memo by the journalists’ lawyer, David Gottlieb.
“Tell your f—king sister (Ms. Torre) to drop her stupid lawsuit,” Leibener told Torre’s brother in March, according to the filing. “At any other shop in town they would have dropped those b——-s so fast it would make your head spin.”
Leibner also said “Pat’s the star,” implying that Torre is not,
Gottlieb alleged in the memo.
The accused talent agent also represents Kiernan’s co-hosts on “Mornings On 1,” Jamie Stelter and Annika Pergament.
“It is simply and totally untrue that I made any comment like this. It’s regrettable that someone would make this up, and the fact they’d wait nine months to make this bogus allegation should raise even more questions about its credibility,” Leibner said in a statement Thursday.
The anchorwomen argue the remarks could reflect the attitude of network executives involved in contract negotiations with favored talent — who tend to be male or younger women.
NY1 has not renewed Torre’s contract since it expired last year, a move she claims is in retaliation for suing the network. She was hired in 1992. Charter Spectrum overhauled the channel in 2017.
“Mr. Kiernan has refused to air my theater reviews on his show Mornings On 1, even after I won an Emmy for these reviews,” Torre said in a sworn statement.
None of the anchorwomen have been invited on Kiernan’s new podcast, “Crosstown,” which features interviews with the network’s journalists, the new filing notes.
Shaughnessy says she’s also been frozen out of her duties as primary weekday morning fill-in anchor. She used to fill in around 48 times per year, but has not anchored Kiernan’s “Mornings On 1” since it was created more than three years ago.
Attorneys for NY1 argue that the anchorwomen are on a fishing expedition and have served a flood of subpoenas on Kiernan, Stelter and others without legal justification.
A spokeswoman for the news station declined comment.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Kiernan’s agent would display such blatant hostility and animus towards Ms. Torre and her co-plaintiffs. Sadly it is consistent with the way they have been treated by NY1 and some colleagues in the newsroom,” Gottlieb said in an email.