When three former backup dancers for Lizzo filed lawsuits against the singer in August 2023, alleging that she engaged in sexual misconduct and created a hostile work environment, they helped expose a culture of “celebrity abuse” that is “rampant” in the entertainment industry, the women’s attorney says.
One of the results of the dancers’ lawsuit is that two other former employees of Lizzo and of another top music artist, Megan Thee Stallion, have come forward to file hostile-workplace lawsuits, with the lawsuit against Megan Thee Stallion coming this week.
“The ‘wall of silence’ around celebrity abuse and toxicity (was) cracked and weakened by the initial Lizzo plaintiffs coming forward,” said L.A.-based employment law attorney Ron Zambrano in a statement to this news organization. Zambrano’s firm represents all five plaintiffs in three lawsuits that have been filed against Lizzo and Meghan Thee Stallion since August. “This has empowered others to at least consider what they are going through or went through was not only unacceptable, but also unlawful behavior.”
On Tuesday, a former cameraman for Megan Thee Stallion filed suit against the “Hot Girl Summer” rapper in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging, among other things, that he was trapped inside a moving vehicle with the star in Spain in 2022, while she had sex with a woman, NBC News reported.
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 11: EDITORIAL USE ONLY Lizzo performs on stage during The BRIT Awards 2023 at The O2 Arena on February 11, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images)
Emilio Garcia alleged that the following day he was asked by Megan Thee Stallion if he saw her having sex, the lawsuit said. When he confirmed he had, he was told by her to never discuss what he saw, and he was subsequently berated, fat-shamed and treated differently by her. When they returned from the trip, he said his compensation structure was changed.
The harassment “was so severe or pervasive” that it created a “hostile, abusive work environment” that made Garcia’s “working conditions intolerable,” the lawsuit said.
Garcia’s legal filing against Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, comes the same week that the Grammy winner announced that her worldwide Hot Girl Summer Tour would include a June 23 performance at San Francisco’s Chase Center.
News of the lawsuit brought an immediate denial from Megan Thee Stallion’s legal team. Attorney Alex Spiro blasted the “salacious accusations” made against his client in an “attempt to embarrass her,” referring to Garcia’s claims that he was forced to watch her have sex. In a statement to the Daily Beast, Spiro insisted that the lawsuit is “an employment claim for money,” with no accompanying sexual harassment claim.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 14: Lizzo presents the Best New Artist award to Megan Thee Stallion onstage during the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Zambrano hit back, saying it’s no surprise that Megan Thee Stallion would deny the allegations. In a statement to the Daily Beast, he explained that Garcia’s hostile workplace allegations stems from being forced into sexual voyeurism.
“None of this is intended to embarrass her but merely an attempt to hold her accountable for her illegal actions just as anyone else should be, celebrity or not,” Zambrano said.
In a statement to this news organization, the attorney also pushed back at the idea circulating online that only male stars can be abusers — or that Garcia should have been excited by the car sex, participated in it or taken out his camera to film it.
“Just because he is a man, he can still be a victim of sexually inappropriate conduct in the workplace — rights that should be respected,” the attorney said.
The lawsuits against Lizzo also allege that the “Truth Hurts” singer fostered a toxic workplace that was rife with sexual harassment, as well as weight-shaming and racial and religious discrimination.
Lizzo has denied the allegations, and her attorneys have filed to dismiss both lawsuits. In March, she suggested in an Instagram post that the fallout had led her to consider quitting music. While she did not explicitly name the lawsuits, she referred vaguely to “lies being told about me for clout & views.”
“I’m getting tired of putting up with being dragged by everyone in my life and on the internet,” Lizzo wrote. “All I want is to make music and make people happy and help the world be a little better than how I found it. But I’m starting to feel like the world doesn’t want me in it.”
Lizzo later clarified to say that she didn’t intend to quit music but that she would only stop giving attention to the “negative energy.”
Zambrano told this news organization that commons theme have emerged from the allegations against Lizzo and Meghan Thee Stallion and in phone calls his firm, West Coast Trial Lawyers, has received from distraught workers who are afraid to come forward against powerful bosses. Celebrities can get away with abusive behavior because people need to work, he said. Even when employees file complaints internally, nothing is done, “further enabling the behavior,” he said.
“Where the source of the unlawful behavior wields so much power (like in the celebrity/artist context) these stories and violations are rampant,” Zambrano said.
“We have to stop expecting that those who work for stars should just deal with this egregious and illegal behavior and suck it up and be thankful for their access,” Zambrano continued. “That is a recipe for the abuse in treatment and underpayment, not only in this lawsuit, but in many other stories that are yet to be told.”
Zambrano also pushed back against suggestion that his clients’ lawsuits are unfairly targeting women of color who have achieved power in the entertainment industry. He said, “Our client are themselves people of color — and four out of five of them are female.”
Zambrano’s law firm first made news last August when it filed the lawsuit against Lizzo, her production company and her dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, on behalf of three dancers, Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis, and Noelle Rodriguez. The dancers had worked on on Lizzo’s Special Tour, which began in September 2022 and ended in July 2023.
In court documents summarized by The Cut, the dancers allege, among other things, that Lizzo pressured them to “attend outings where nudity and sexuality were a focal point,” disregarding their discomfort in these settings. One such outing occurred in Amsterdam, when they accompanied the singer to a nightclub in the city’s red-light district. While there, the lawsuit alleges, Lizzo “hounded” her employees to have physical contact with nude dancers.
The dancers also allege that they experienced body-shaming on the job, an especially shocking allegation, as Lizzo has often been praised for promoting body positivity, The Cut said.
The following month, stylist Asha Daniels filed a separate suit, alleging she endured an environment of sexual harassment, overwork, and racism during the tour, The Cut reported. In her lawsuit, Daniels named Lizzo and her production company as defendants, as well as the concert’s tour and wardrobe managers.
Daniels’s suit claims she was fired “without notice or reason” after speaking up, The Cut reported. While her suit didn’t cite specific allegations of misconduct against Lizzo, she said in an interview with ABC news that a professional environment ultimately comes down to the boss. Zambrano echoed this view in a statement released when Daniels’ lawsuit was filed, “Lizzo is the boss, so the buck stops with her.”