You may or may not remember that back in 2011, Lady Gaga got sued by a her former assistant, Jennifer O’Neill, for a whole lot of unpaid overtime. That lawsuit brought a lot of bizarre claims to the forefront, like how O’Neill had to sleep in the same bed as Gaga because she couldn’t bear to sleep alone and how she had to be on call 24/7 to stand outside the shower and hand Gaga her towel when she got out.
Well, O’Neill is back and badder than ever, and this time she’s writing a tell-all book about her two years working with Mama Monster. Spoiler: It was awful!
Here’s the scoop from The Guardian:
Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, have told the Hollywood Reporter and New York Post that O’Neill has inked a contract with them. It’s a deal worth “up to $1 million”, according to the Post, though they have yet to announce a publication date.
O’Neill’s history with Gaga first came to light in 2011, when she sued the singer for hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime pay. Between 2009 and 2011, O’Neill claimed, she was expected “to be working and available 24/7” – handling Gaga’s luggage, administering her “medicine”, waking her up, and even “ensuring the promptness of a towel following a shower”. As part of her testimony, O’Neill alleged that she was “required” to sleep in Gaga’s bed, “because [the star] didn’t sleep alone”.
Gaga was not pleased with O’Neill’s allegations. “This whole case is bullshit and you know it,” she said during a recorded deposition. “[Jennifer] thinks she’s just like the queen of the universe … [but] in my work and what I do, I’m the queen of the universe every day … She knew there was no overtime … [She’s a] fucking hood-rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn.”
Right, so there are some bigtime issues I have here with this whole thing. Sure, O’Neill’s claims about “running errands” are bullshit because uh, what do you think you were hired to do? That being said, Gaga’s the queen of the universe every day? She doesn’t pay overtime when she’s a fucking millionaire? She’s going on the record to call her former assistant a “hood-rat”? Even if you think that privately, have some class and dignity when it comes to legal cases. If there’s one “hood-rat” here, it’s Gaga.
I can’t wait to read this book. I hope O’Neill trashes Gaga good and lets out some seriously juicy stuff. If there was no overtime, I hope there was no NDA, either.