HEAVY MEDDLE
I lost 'Mean Girls' party gig' cause of my size: suit
A larger-than-life waiter claims he was bounced from working a lucrative bash for the “Mean Girls” movie musical premiere because studio bigwigs decided he was too fat.
Joseph Sacchi, a classically trained tenor who stands 6-foot-2, weighs 360 pounds and dreams of performing at The Met as a full-time professional opera singer, says the Jan. 8 reception was held during his regular shift at The Ribbon restaurant on West 72nd Street, and would have netted him a $770 tip.
But Paramount honchos who did a walk-through at the Upper West Side eatery ahead of the party apparently “pointed to” him and told the manager “that they did not want him working the event,” Sacchi, 32, claims in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit — possibly the first filed under the city’s height- and weight-discrimination ban.
“What The Ribbon and Paramount did was wrong. I was hurt financially and emotionally. It was embarrassing and infuriating,” Sacchi told The Post. “I’ve worked at The Ribbon for the past [three] years, but now it has become a very uncomfortable and toxic place to be.”
He added, “I’m hopeful that this litigation will help to set the precedent that fatphobia is unacceptable in New York City and that a person’s size is not a reflection of their ability and value.”
Life imitates art
The 2024 movie, an adaptation of the Broadway show that was based on the original 2004 highschool comedy starring Lindsay Lohan, features actress and singer Renee Rapp, whose main character Regina George struggles with weight gain.
“The irony is not lost on me that ‘Mean Girls’ is itself a story about bullying. The line, ‘You can’t sit with us!’ comes instantly to mind,” Sacchi noted.
The city passed a weighty antidiscrimination measure in May 2023 that makes it illegal to treat people differently because of their size in employment, public accommodations and housing.
Sacchi, who is seeking unspecified damages from the restaurant and the movie studio, claims he didn’t serve or interact with Paramount reps during their inspection of The Ribbon, so he deduced their only reason to shun him was his appearance.
He was “shocked” when he wasn’t scheduled to work the party “and was even more dumbstruck when I realized that I was the only available server that was not scheduled to work.”
The Oregon native has struggled with his weight most of his life. “The first time that someone commented on my weight was when another kid called me fat all the way back in kindergarten,” he said.
Big stage dreams
Sacchi loved musical theater but in college was told he could “only be a character actor due to my size. The opera department on the other hand told me that I had a promising future as a leading tenor. This was one of the reasons that led me to study classical voice.”
Toward the end of his undergrad work, he lost 150 pounds.
“Suddenly, strangers and acquaintances were so much nicer to me,” he recalled. “I was astounded by the wave of attention and change of attitude that came with the weight loss.”
He moved to the Big Apple for graduate school, and says stress, inactivity from the pandemic and a family tragedy caused the pounds to return.
Sacchi contends The Ribbon had a moral and legal obligation to stand up to “customer bullying” on his behalf.
It wasn’t just Paramount who allegedly had a problem with Sacchi’s weight.
“If Joe was here, how would he have moved around? It’s a full house,” The Ribbon’s scheduling manager allegedly told one of Sacchi’s colleagues at the reception, he claims in court papers.
When he complained, the restaurant allegedly cut his shifts.
Sacchi’s social-media posts mostly include shots of the young singer from the shoulders up, as he belts out tunes such as Rodgers and Harts’ “My Funny Valentine” and “If I Can Dream,” a song made famous by Elvis Presley in 1968.
“What happened to our client Joe is not just mean, it’s now illegal under New York City law,” Sacchi’s lawyers, Eric Baum and Juyoun Han, said in a statement.
“Any claims against Paramount are baseless, and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” a company rep said. The Ribbon did not return calls for comment.