A group of attractive women, all neighbors on a beautiful street in Anytown, USA, gather together for coffee on a regular basis to gossip, analyze fashion trends, spy on other neighbors, and spend endless hours waxing philosophically about the solutions to many world problems. If this sounds like a day in the life of a mundane, contemporary soccer mom in a New York suburb, you are sorely mistaken. It is a typical episode taken from a popular TV show, Desperate Housewives, which aired on prime time television for about 8 years.
And now, one of those ladies is having her day in court.
A main characters, a female of questionable repute, had sued her network for wrongful termination. The first round ended in a mistrial. Her claims included undermining the credibility of her character, suffering a bop on the head from the show’s creator, and, most importantly, for writing her out of the series as a result of taking her complaints to the show’s higher-ups.
The actress, who plays a provocative temptress, claimed she suffered stress from multiple, behind-the-scenes abuses in which, it was written in the script, she met her untimely end via a car accident, strangulation and death by electrocution. While this series of events could be read in the NY Daily News about a Brooklyn housewife, in reality, the actress/vixen has been given the chance to a do-over in court.
She maintains she is entitled to a multi-million dollar settlement and is pleading her case once again to a jury of her peers. Her legal advisor stated the show’s creators dismissed her complaint about a smack to the skull, then conspired to cover up the whole mess. Opposing defense told the jurors there was no conspiracy, and that the local trollop had run her creative course. Top networks executives claim business is business and her character is no longer needed.
It’s a murky, dismal world out there. Whether you have been subjected to the humiliation of wrongful termination as retaliatory action, albeit in Hollywood or New York, this detail has little bearing on the law. Inappropriate work behavior, whether verbal or physical, hurts. Complaints to the boss resulting in wrongful termination should be thoroughly investigated by a knowledgeable and helpful party of individuals to protect the rights of every employee on the job.
Source: New York Daily News, “Nicollette Sheridan wins approval for retrial for ‘Desperate Housewives’ wrongful termination suit” Don Kaplan, Jan. 30, 2014
