A vice president with Paramount Pictures Corp. and parent company Paramount Global wants a woman who sued him and both entities for alleged sexual harassment to use her true name in future pleadings.
The plaintiff is currently identified only as Jane Doe in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, which alleges sexual harassment, hostile work environment, negligence, negligent retention, retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff also alleges that the vice president, Patrick Smith, was her supervisor and also disparaged other female employees.
On Friday, Smith’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Virginia Keeny in advance of a May 27 hearing asking that Doe no longer be allowed to use a pseudonym in future court papers.
“A plaintiff should be permitted to proceed anonymously only in those exceptional cases involving matters of a highly sensitive and personal nature, real danger of physical harm or where the injury litigated against would be incurred as a result of the disclosure of the plaintiff’s identity,” Smith’s lawyers write in their pleadings, adding that the risk that a plaintiff may suffer some embarrassment if his or her identity is made public is not enough.
According to the suit filed last July 9, Doe was continuously made to feel “self-conscious, embarrassed, intimidated, dehumanized … and extremely uncomfortable at work each day at work, as a result of (Smith’s) conduct and behavior and defendant … Paramount Pictures’ failure to prevent such conduct.”
Doe was hired in 2017 and reported directly to Smith, who two years later transferred her to XYi Design, a Paramount vendor that provided marketing and design services. While doing work for XYi, Doe continued to be at the Paramount office with the vice president as her supervisor, the suit further contends.
According to Doe, Smith “persistently subjected plaintiff Doe to his intrusive and unwelcome gaze, leering at her body and making inappropriate sexual remarks about her figure. His offensive scrutiny compelled plaintiff to drape a sweater around her waist in a desperate attempt to shield herself from his predatory eyes.”
However, Doe’s efforts were mostly ineffective against Smith’s “relentless” misconduct, the suit alleges. He sent her numerous texts with a sexual and often vulgar tone, including “I really love you, please know that,” the suit states.
Smith solicited Doe to join him on a work trip to Las Vegas and hinted they would have sex there, and another time sent him a photo of a woman who also worked for him and called her his “number 2,” suggesting that Doe was his “number 1,” the suit states.
Smith allegedly also made inappropriate remarks about other female employees, including an older worker who he reportedly insinuated was acting strangely because of hormone issues.
The plaintiff went on maternity leave and when she returned, Smith made outlandish comments about her figure both positive and negative, the suit alleges.
Doe says her boss also repeatedly intimated to plaintiff that he had informants throughout the office, poised to relay any spoken word back to him, fostering an “atmosphere of intimidation and surveillance,” the suit further alleges.