Lady Gaga Headed to Trial in Ex-Assistant and One-time Roommate's Lawsuit
Lady Gaga is going to trial for allegedly cheating her ex-assistant, Jennifer O'Neill, out of overtime wages.
District Judge Paul Gardephe set the date for the trial as Nov. 4.
"A jury can decide whether Gaga's demands left Jennifer O'Neill any personal time or whether she was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as she claimed in her 2011 lawsuit," he said.
O'Neill was also Gaga's roommate and friend at some point in time. Gaga moved into O'Neill's apartment building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 2008. As they became friends, Gaga hired O'Neill as her personal assistant.
In her lawsuit, O'Neill claimed that Gaga overworked her, leaving her no personal time, through the duration of the period that she served Gaga as her personal assistant. She also accuses Gaga of not paying her the requisite overtime wages.
O'Neill worked for the singer for about a year and a half -- two months in early 2009 and 13 months starting February 2010. According to O'Neill, she was payed $50,000 annually when she was first hired and $75,000 the second time.
O'Neill's lawyers have also stated that she never got her own hotel room when she was touring with Gaga, as she was at her beck and call round the clock. O'Neill stayed in Gaga's room so that she could attend to her needs. In her deposition, O'Neill cited an instance when Gaga was watching a DVD in the middle of the might and wanted it changed as she grew tired of it, so she woke O'Neill up to replace the DVD.
"Every day is a work day for her, so every day is a work day for the rest of us," O'Neill said. "There is no, 'We're going to stay in, we're going to sleep.' There is no, 'Let's put on sweatpants and go out to the movies and be girlfriends.' It doesn't work like that."
"You don't get a schedule. You don't get a schedule that is like you punch in and you can play ... at your desk for four hours and then you punch out at the end of the day. This is when I need you, you're available," Lady Gaga had testified in her depostion.
In the litigation, Lady Gaga, is listed under her birth name, Stefani Germanotta.
