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Aaron Spelling Suits Up
Apparently, it takes more than a passing sexual-harassment claim to sully the name of Aaron Spelling.
A Los Angeles judge dismissed the defamation portion of a lawsuit the überproducer filed against his former nurse Monday while allowing him and his family to move forward on their claims of breach of contract.
Spelling, who preemptively filed the suit against Charlene Richards last November, argued that her allegations of repeated groping, requested sexual favors and propositions to "dress like a hooker" while in his employ painted him as a serial sexual harasser.
Adding further insult to injury, Spelling claims that Richards, 56, and her lawyer sent out a document entitled "Survey on sexual harassment by Aaron Spelling" to no fewer than 600 actresses with whom the TV legend worked during his career, including Teri Hatcher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange, in order to ascertain whether Spelling had a history of crossing the line.
The Dynasty creator claimed the letter was defamation; the judge disagreed. While it was likely not the most flattering document to bear Spelling's name, Judge William Highberger ruled that Richards was within her right to send the survey as part of the ongoing litigation with her former boss.
But the geriatric producer and his family weren't completely shut out in court. The Spellings were given the go-ahead to pursue the second part of their original lawsuit, their claims of breach of contract.
The 83-year-old Charlie's Angels producer alleges that Richards violated a confidentiality agreement she signed upon her hiring at the Spelling home in November 2004. She was fired in April 2005.
Spelling, along with his wife Candy, who is also a plaintiff, claim that Richards discussed both her alleged harassment as well as several intimate details of life at the Spelling mansion with her then-boyfriend.
According to a deposition given by the former nurse's ex, Paul Porter, Richards had blabbed about the mogul's medications, his wife and her friends, his children, Tori and Randy, and security issues at their Holmby Hills estate.
Judge Highberger ruled that a jury could decide whether Richards broke her contract with the Spellings, at least in terms of moving forward with their claims, saying that despite many of the details of the mogul's life already being public, he nevertheless had a right to privacy.
"He wants a private home--whether he eats Cheerios or Wheaties or oatmeal imported from Denmark on a supersonic jet," Highberger said.
"Most people that work for celebrities understand the need for confidentiality," Spelling's lawyer, Robert F. Chapman, told the Los Angeles Times. "In this case, we have a person who wasn't willing to comply with the confidentiality requirements and that's why we have the lawsuit."
Last month, Spelling's motion to seal the documents containing the private details, as well as several other documents pertaining to the sexual harassment case, was denied.
Lawyers for both Spelling and Richards plan on appealing Monday's ruling.
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