NBCUniversal Media LLC is seeking dismissal of many of the claims in a lawsuit brought by a former company employee who says a former executive coerced him into a sexual relationship, contending that the allegations infringe on the company’s free speech.
Plaintiff Tyler Adkins, 28, filed the lawsuit against NBCUniversal and co-employer Now a Warning LLC in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging a variety of causes of action ranging from whistleblower retaliation, assault and battery to sexual harassment and multiple state Labor Code violations.
Among the individual defendants is Chris Herzberger, NBCUniversal’s former vice president of live theatricals.
“Adkins and Herzberger enjoyed a three-year, committed romantic relationship,” the NBC and Now a Warning attorneys state in their court papers filed Monday with Judge Maurice Leiter. Although the pair seemed to “have it all,” their relationship abruptly ended in June 2024 when Adkins accused Herzberger of cheating on him and found text messages suggesting that Herzberger was involved in sexual conduct with minors, according to the NBC lawyers’ pleadings.
“Adkins then filed this lawsuit, re-casting their consensual, loving relationship as a series of exploitive acts,” the NBC attorneys further state. “The claim is baseless — and largely subject to California’s Anti-SLAPP statute.”
The state’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
According to the suit, Herzberger contacted Adkins through Instagram in March 2021 and the plaintiff hoped he would be eventually offered a job. However, Herzberger turned the meeting into a romantic encounter rather than a business opportunity, the suit alleges.
“Once at Mr. Herzberger’s home, Mr. Herzberger told plaintiff that plaintiff should have sex with him and that it would help plaintiff’s career if he complied with Mr. Herzberger’s suggestion,” according to the suit filed Feb. 13, which further alleges that Adkins reluctantly relented.
Adkins says he was eventually given a job in 2024 and with NBCUniversal writer Marco Pennette in connection with the musical “Death Becomes Her.”
Adkins’ alleges that Herzberger threatened to blacklist the plaintiff from the entertainment industry if he left their relationship, and further states that Adkins also experienced a backlash from NBCUniversal when he informed management as well as the police of Herzberger’s sexual behavior that allegedly went beyond the pale.
Adkins was fired in June 2024 and says he was told by another executive that she knew what was happening to him was unfair, but that the plaintiff was “collateral damage” and that he also was being dismissed for cost reasons, the suit states. The same executive allegedly told Adkins that he should be “very careful” in order to avoid making “powerful enemies” in Hollywood.
But according to the NBC attorneys’ court papers, there is no basis to hold the company liable for private conduct between romantic partners, making Adkins’ sexual battery, battery and assault claims among those that should be stricken.
NBC and Now a Warning have filed a separate motion challenging and seeking dismissal of Adkins’ state Labor Code violations on grounds that the plaintiff’s work was performed primarily in Illinois. The anti-SLAPP motion is scheduled for hearing on Nov. 7 and the other motion on Nov. 10.