Lawsuit Accuses Designer Duke of Harassment
Randolph Duke, the fashion designer who dressed best actress Hilary Swank at last’s month’s Oscars, has been slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit by a former assistant, Maureen Walsh.
In a suit filed March 27 in Manhattan Supreme Court, the 33-year-old New Jersey resident claims she suffers anxiety attacks, headaches and dizziness as a result of her three-month tenure last year with Duke, who lives in New York and L.A.
Walsh alleges that Duke, 42, repeatedly exposed himself to her and that she was required to be present during a “procedure on . . . Duke’s genitalia” in a doctor’s office. She also claims he slammed her against a wall at the Avalon Hotel in L.A. on Oscar night 1999 and that she fled the hotel and immediately flew home to New Jersey (where she filed a report the next day with her hometown Police Department).
According to Walsh’s police statement, the designer went into “a violent, screaming fit of rage” after learning that two other employees had left the hotel, and said, “I am a star . . . this is not the way I should be treated! If you [Walsh] can’t cut it, you are useless.”
Duke’s attorney, Marshall Bellovin, said, “All I can say is on behalf of Mr. Duke, Ms. Walsh’s allegations are the basis of an utterly frivolous action . . . in a desperate attempt to discredit him at a highly visible moment.”
(On Friday, the New York Post reported that in 1993, Walsh sued fashion house Christian Dior, where she had worked, over a “stress-related condition.” Her lawyer, Bob Romano, told me she dropped that suit but said he did not know if there had been a settlement.)
In a faxed statement, Walsh, who worked for Duke from December 1998 to March 1999, said, “I am taking legal action not only to salvage my own dignity and self-esteem, but also to save other women from the hell that he has put me through.”
Walsh claims in her lawsuit that she has been under psychiatric care for post-traumatic stress syndrome and a panic disorder.
As to the amount of money Walsh is seeking, Romano said, “We are leaving it open at this point.”
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On a lighter note . . . a screening of a new MTV documentary, “True Life: I’m an Actor,” at the Screen Actors Guild on Monday turned into a union pep rally of sorts. (SAG has been in contract negotiations for six weeks with advertising industry groups.)
SAG’s Miracle Mile building in L.A. is normally not open for public events. But, said recording secretary Karen Austin, “because this documentary is about struggling actors, we thought it was appropriate that we be here in our union because right now our union is struggling!” (Actors are pushing for a raise in residuals; advertisers are trying to cut costs.)
The documentary, to air April 12, features four L.A. actors in different stages of their careers: the neophyte, the working actor, the “star” (in this case, “City of Angels’ ” Blair Underwood), and the bread-and-butter-of-the-craft guy. As Underwood says in the program, “If you really want to act, you’ll be happy acting on a street corner. But if you are acting to be a star, you are chasing the wrong dream.”
In MTV’s “Real World” style, “True Life: I’m an Actor” is short on substance and long on cool tunes. Still, it’s a fun ride with more than a few laughs. “Working actor” Bobby Singfield’s only complaint after seeing himself in the episode for the first time Monday? That he didn’t get more screen time.
Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.
