Lady Gaga, Foul-Mouthed Deposition: Former Assistant Feels Mother Monster's Fury

Posted on Feb 1st 2013 11:35AM by Maggie Malach

Lady Gaga court rant Luca Bruno, AP

Lady Gaga wasn't putting up her poker face during a recent deposition. The "Born This Way" singer is locked in a legal battle with her former personal assistant, Jennifer O'Neill, who is suing Gaga for unpaid overtime hours.

Things got heated in a Manhattan law office when Mother Monster let loose during her six-hour testimony, calling O'Neill a "f--king hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn't earn."

"She's just -- she thinks she's just like the queen of the universe," Gaga contiuned, according to records obtained by The New York Post. "And, you know what, she didn't want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I'm the queen of the universe every day."

O'Neill, who has worked for Gaga on two separate occasions, claims the singer owes her $393,000 for 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime, plus damages.

In a deposition taped on Aug. 6, Gaga refutes the charges, insisting her former employee "knew exactly what she was getting into, and she knew there was no overtime, and I never paid her overtime the first time I hired her, so why would she be paid overtime the second time?"

Gaga also described her belief that O'Neill failed at even basic tasks, "One of the biggest problems I had with Jen is that I felt like she didn't enough lay out all my stuff for me [while traveling]. There is 20 bags and there is only one me, and I can't sift through everything."

Unlike previous assistants, who set up the singer's hotel rooms to her liking, "[O'Neill] would only open a couple of bags, and it was very stressful for me because then again 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 12:00 most of the time, so I was very often waking up and moving my own luggage and doing s--t by myself, and it was -- it was a problem that I had."

As far as the overtime claims are concerned, Mother Monster insisted her employees only work an eight-hour day. Noting that she recognizes the hard work of her employees, Gaga added, "Not that people who do that don't deserve their hourly pay, but I'm just pointing out that I deserve everything I've worked for. I deserve every dollar of it. And she deserves every dollar of her $75,000 that we agreed to. But she does not deserve a penny more."

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holmesarliss

What a sickening, pathetic situation

February 03 2013 at 8:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

squwheels

Dignity and respect... that how you treat everyone. Just because you're paying someone to do a job doesn't mean the employer has the right to be a total jerk.

Secondly... why on Earth would anyone want to be a celebrity assistant? I really wish people would stop with this whole celebrity obsession. It's gross. There are certainly more worthwhile places to earn a paycheck.

February 02 2013 at 8:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

abbafan320

An obviously biased article. Gaga is known for her good attitude toward those who work for her and this isn't the first time one of them tried to rip her off. And yes, she is the Queen.

February 02 2013 at 11:13 AM Report abuse Permalink -6 rate up rate down Reply

sonicbbq44

She's the queen of the universe? Only in her tiny mind.

February 02 2013 at 10:31 AM Report abuse Permalink +11 rate up rate down Reply

Stacey's AOL

She had to move her own bags and sift through her own stuff from time to time??? OH, the Horror! What a spoiled brat.

February 02 2013 at 9:54 AM Report abuse Permalink +11 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Stacey's AOL's comment

ana.nal

If I hired an assistant I would expect them to do that...it's part of their job to tend to the needs/wants of their employer. Being a personal assistant is like being a well-remunerated slave almost. If she wasn't up to the work, she should've declined the job offer.

February 02 2013 at 1:10 PM Report abuse Permalink -2 rate up rate down Reply

Roy M

She is NOT the Queen of the universe, at least not the one I live in.

February 02 2013 at 9:35 AM Report abuse Permalink +13 rate up rate down Reply

jacqueline

she sure doesn't know good grammar

February 02 2013 at 9:14 AM Report abuse Permalink +8 rate up rate down Reply

mlondeaux

I used to work as a celebrity assistant. Amongst other things, I had to go to the deli every single day to buy her dog a half-pound of roast beef for lunch. Her dog who sat on her desk and snapped at me every time I came into the office. When she was remodeling her condo she stayed at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills and I had to take her dog for a "bathroom" walk twice a day. One time her dog decided to poop right in front of the Four Seasons where guests were arriving in their limos. The doorman came running over to me saying "No, no, no, we can't have that here. Please, go somewhere else." I've never been so embarrassed in my life!

Another time I had to drive all over town in the pouring rain to look for a particular magazine. It was the end of the month so the magazine had already sold out in most places. I went to newsstands, bookstores, and convenience stores looking for that damn magazine. I finally found it at the supermarket , but there was a major problem. A woman had already picked up the only copy that was left. Putting my pride aside, I begged her to let me have the magazine. When I finally got back to work, drenched to the bone, I was absolutely furious when she tossed the magazine aside and said that she had found the article about fingernails on the internet.

Then there was the time when I stopped at Starbucks to get her daily breakfast of a lightly toasted bagel and non-fat vanilla latte grande. In the car I remembered that she had told me the day before to butter her bagel before I got to the office. So I sat in my car and buttered her bagel, and as I was trying to put the bagel back in the bag, I accidentally dumped her coffee all over my front seat. To add insult to injury, as I was grabbing for the coffee the buttered bagel ended up in my lap and stained the dress I had just bought. Now I had to go back into Starbucks, in my butter-stained dress, to get her another cup of coffee. To top it off, once I got to the office she yelled at me for being late. That was the last straw. I threw everything in the trash and told her to go get her own damned coffee. Then I said "I quit." I've never been happier over losing a job.

February 02 2013 at 9:03 AM Report abuse Permalink +4 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to mlondeaux's comment

I'm sorry you had an unpleasant experience. Most people would joyfully embrace running errands all day for the kind of money that is usually paid an assistant of a celebrity. Your coffee episode was not her fault it was yours. You forgot to butter the bagel which led to the remaining unfortunate accidents. Personally, I like my bagels buttered while they are warm so that the butter melts so that is not at all unreasonable. You were getting paid to do these things and if it wasn't working for you it was good that you quit so that someone who was willing to work for their pay now has that opportunity. I don't know if there were things demanded of you that were unreasonable but what you have written is rather bland and very normal in the expectation of a personal assistant.

February 02 2013 at 3:38 PM Report abuse Permalink -6 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Me's comment

gigchick

Me- I am sorry. You obviously do not have a broad understanding of assisting a celebrity. As someone who has been in that profession for over 40 years I can tell you that no, most people would NOT embrace running errands all day for that kind of money. The money sounds good of course but the actual working conditions are never as good as it seems from the outside. That is why there is a tremendous turnover rate for celebrity assistants. Few last more than a year or two. I have seen hundreds of assistants leave lucrative jobs because they could not tolerate the abuse, unreasonable demands, and/or whims of their employers. I'm not saying all celebrities are horrible. Nor are all assistants great assistants. But I have seen more abuse than not. There is no HR department for assistants to turn to when they are being treated unfairly.

February 02 2013 at 5:34 PM Report abuse Permalink +6 rate up rate down

cherlones

Wow that comes to 53.84 an hour!! Wish I made that much!!

February 02 2013 at 9:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to cherlones's comment

mooncusser

??? First of all, the assistant is on a salary, not an hourly rate. If you break the $75k down to hours, divide $75k by 52 weeks (and she probably gets paid vacation). That would be $1,442.31 per week, divided by 40 - the average work week - $36.05/hr.

Regardless, I wouldn't be someone's hand maid at their beck and call for $75k. When you have to schlep around walking dogs and doing idiot crap, you have to pay me much more to humiliate myself. Really, $75k is cheap.

February 02 2013 at 11:38 AM Report abuse Permalink +5 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to mooncusser's comment

$75,000 is an excellent wage for an errand person. No skills required. Walk the dog, feed the dog, go to the store, go to the restaurant, pick up the laundry, open the suitcase, go get a water... Ask someone who's working in a sweatshop for pennies an hour if they would be happy with $75,000 as a gofer!

February 02 2013 at 3:42 PM Report abuse Permalink -4 rate up rate down

taxtwin

Lady Gaga is a Madonna wannabe with a rotten attitude. She should be happy that anyone wants to listen to her or look at her in her ridiculous costumes. Maybe she should just pay her bills and stop complaining.

February 02 2013 at 5:54 AM Report abuse Permalink +9 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to taxtwin's comment

frenchblue367

She is a Madonna wannabe, that's for sure. She probably learned how to be a self-absorbed spoiled-rotten b!$#@ too from "Madge." So there's that, too...

February 02 2013 at 7:54 PM Report abuse Permalink +3 rate up rate down Reply

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