An NBCUniversal Media LLC vice president is seeking to be removed as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by a former company employee who says the executive coerced him into a sexual relationship, stating in new court papers that the two were open about their status and even met each other’s parents.
Plaintiff Tyler Adkins, 28, filed the lawsuit against NBCUniversal in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging a variety of causes of action ranging from whistelblower retaliation, assault and battery to sexual harassment and multiple state Labor Code violations. Among the individual defendants is Chris Herzberger, NBCUniversal’s vice president of live theatricals.
“When viewed in context and subjected to even minimal scrutiny, the fatal flaws in plaintiff’s legal claims are apparent,” Herzberger’s attorneys state in court papers filed Friday with Judge Maurice Leiter asking that Herzberger be dismissed from the case.
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.”
But in their court papers, Herzberger’s attorneys say Adkins’ allegations against the vice president and all of the defendants are “absurd on their face” and that Herzberger should be dismissed as a defendant.
A consensual relationship between Adkins and Herzberger began in March 2021 and continued until June 2024, during which time they “came out to family and friends together, lived together, owned a dog together, spent extensive time with each other’s parents and traveled throughout the world together, all on Herzberger’s dime because plaintiff was unemployed,” according to Herzberger’s lawyers’ pleadings.
Adkins now seeks to “recast his personal relationship with Herzberger as the longest job interview in history, which included co-habitating for years and completely merging personal lives before a single minute of work ever began,” according to Herzberger’s lawyers court papers.
But Adkins’ suit 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 last June 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 told Adkins that he should be “very careful” in order to avoid making “powerful enemies” in Hollywood, the suit states.
NBCUniversal also is challenging Adkins’ sexual misconduct allegations against the company, stating that they arise out of a “personal relationship that ended poorly” and that the plaintiff is now trying to “repurpose private grievances” into claims against a third party.