Sex-harass feud is lewd, crude & Rue’d
This lawsuit would make even Blanche Devereaux blush.
The owner of a new “Golden Girls”-themed cafe — a close friend of the late Rue McClanahan, who played bawdy Southern belle Blanche on the ’80s sitcom — is facing salacious sexual-harassment allegations by a former assistant.
Brooklyn resident Henry Campbell started working for Michael J. La Rue at his upper Manhattan eatery, Rue La Rue Cafe, in October 2016. Both men are openly gay.
On Monday, La Rue, 53, expressed shock when he learned about the suit from a Post reporter.
“Oh, my God,” La Rue responded after hearing that he allegedly sent Campbell “an image pertaining to McClanahan’s vagina with the caption, ‘ Lick it.’ ”
“Oh, dear!” La Rue said of the claim that he bragged to Campbell “on a near daily basis” about his penis.
“Ohhh,” La Rue gasped in response to the allegation that he grabbed his personal assistant’s tush.
When Campbell complained to his boss about the behavior, La Rue retaliated by firing him, according to the suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
La Rue said, “There’s no truth or substance to me sexually harassing him.”
He claims that he fired Campbell for not being able to perform his job.
The restaurateur also alleged that Campbell’s suit was filed after La Rue refused to give his struggling former employee rent money.
Campbell is suing for unspecified damages. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
La Rue met McClanahan at Studio 54, and says his West 189th Street cafe is named for an inside joke with the actress, who had quipped that if they married, she’d change her name to Rue La Rue.