One of Madonna's ex-employees is causing a commotion.
A former vice president of development at the Material One's Maverick Films is suing Madonna and several other executives for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, Los Angeles' City News Service reports.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Yael Oestreich, accuses Maverick CEO Mark Morgan of making sexually explicit remarks to her on several occasions, then firing her without cause last July.
According to the complaint, the trouble dates to Nov. 11, 2003, when several employees went to a Los Angeles bar. Morgan, who purportedly invited Oestreich to tag along, steered "the topic of the conversation [to] personal sexual matters" and "requested that two female employees kiss one another," per court documents.
The twisted game of truth or dare didn't end there, says Oestreich.
The woman claims that when she failed to join in, Morgan called her "uptight." He later "reached over and pinched a female employee's nipple."
The suit asserts that Morgan subsequently tried to "ridicule and embarrass" Oestreich by "accusing her of having slept with three agents at United Talent Agency, her former employer" and "threatened to fire her if she did not confess."
Oestreich says she took her complaint to her superiors, who, she claims, ignored them. The situation allegedly escalated over the next several months. Oestreich says she became the target of several offensive comments about women by Morgan, as well as "unwelcome and repeated inappropriate sexual inquiries."
She says that although she received a promotion, a promised bump in salary never materialized. After she fell ill with mononucleosis, she claims Morgan threatened to slash her pay because she didn't seem excited about her work anymore. A month later she was fired.
Maverick cofounders Guy Oseary and Madonna were also named as defendants in the suit because they "failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into defendant Morgan's background before hiring him and knew or should have known of his propensity for sexual harassment and discrimination."
Reps for Maverick and Madonna declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Oestreich's suit seeks unspecified general damages, medical expenses, loss of earnings and punitive and exemplary damages.
Aside from fending off lawsuits, Madonna has plenty to keep her busy. She's next set to join David Bowie and Snoop Dogg in lending their voices to director Luc Besson's computer-generated children's tale, Arthur and the Minimoys, due to hit theaters in 2006.