Jay Leno is being sued by former American Airlines flight attendant Louann Giambattista, who claims that she was falsely accused of bestiality during a segment of “Woulda, Coulda Shoulda” on NBC’s The Tonight Show.
In the complaint – filed in New York Supreme Court – Louann Giambattista claims that a July 2013 episode of The Tonight Show picked up a story about her supposedly smuggling her pet rat onto work flights in her underwear and/or pantyhose, Courthouse News Service reported.
Louann Giambattista says that the story was the result of an alleged “relentless campaign of discrimination” by American Airlines.
According to the suit: “Leno and his guests falsely accused Ms. Giambattista of engaging in s**ual relations with a rat,” primarily via the comments made by the panelists on the “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” segment.
Among the comments: “[If] I were one of those rats, I would’ve been very upset. I prefer not to sit in cooch.”
Since the segment aired, Louann Giambattista claims she and her husband, Steven Goldring, have become “pariahs in their own community, among their long-standing group of friends, among their co-workers and even among family”.
Even worse, Louann Giambattista and Steven Goldring’s intimate life has suffered, because: “Every time he looks at her he thinks of Defendant Leno and the heinous segment depicting her as a s**ual deviant.”
Louann Giambattista, who’s also suing American Airlines in a separate complaint, is seeking unspecified damages.