According to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan and obtained by TMZ, late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon is being sued by his former stage manger, Paul Tarascio, who claims he was demoted and then fired and replaced by a "totally incompetent woman." He's looking for punitive damages and lost wages. His beef? That Fallon replaced him because he wasn't a woman.
According to Tarascio's claim, Fallon's director David Diomedi even told him, "Jimmy just prefers to take direction from a woman." The demotion happened back in 2010, the year after Fallon took the late night position at NBC (the network is also being sued for discrimination). Tarascio says he was a victim of "gender bias," and that he wasn't the only one, either, claiming "other male staffers, such as audio technicians and a Prop-Master were also replaced by women at Jimmy's request."
This came up last year when Tarascio first filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the New York Division of Human Rights, and at that time NBC issued a statement saying, "We have yet to see any of the charges. Any claim of sexual discrimination is without merit." They have yet to comment on the new lawsuit.
