In a landmark legal case, Lady Gaga is set to redraw the rules of employment, after a ferocious spat with best friend Jennifer O’Neill, who became her personal assistant.
In testimony prepared for a forthcoming trial, Lady Gaga tells in her own words how she reigns as “Queen of the Universe every day” – and why no one should be paid overtime.
The court papers, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, show how Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, argues a 9-to-5 job may last 24 hours a day but in return, staff get to sleep between Egyptian cotton sheets, eat caviar, relax on luxury yachts and “party all night”.
Lady Gaga, 27, has submitted the expletive-filled 200-page witness statement that explains in her own words why her entourage get perks instead of cash for extra hours worked.
Lady Gaga is set to redraw the rules of employment, after a ferocious spat with personal assistant Jennifer O’Neill
The singer says: “It’s actually based on a bubbly, good heart. I am quite wonderful to everyone that works for me. I am going to tell you exactly what ******* happened, so that the judge can read on this transcript exactly what’s going on, which is my ex-best friend is a ******* hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn. The job was essentially a favor, and Jennifer was majorly unqualified for it.”
Jennifer O’Neill, 42, is claiming she worked 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime while being employed by the star for 13 months and is demanding $370,000, plus damages. She claims she was at Lady Gaga’s “beck and call”, responsible for her “grunt work” as the singer’s career took off in 2010.
Jennifer O’Neill, who was paid $1,500 a week, said she often had to share a bed with the star who hated sleeping alone, had to rub the corns on her feet and was woken up because the star could not be bothered to get up to change a DVD.
If Lady Gaga loses the case, due in court in New York on November 4, the verdict will have huge ramifications for entertainment-industry employees because, as Gaga herself says, “overtime payments are not usual in my line of work”.
A source close to the case said: “She thinks nothing of splashing out huge chunks of money on selfish things but when it comes to looking after her staff and paying a fair wage for their time, she is neglectful. It’s double standards. Her selfishness can be breathtaking at times.”
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Jennifer O’Neill, Lady Gaga’s former personal assistant, who is currently suing the singer for unpaid overtime, has revealed in court depositions that she shared the same bed as Gaga during her Monster’s Ball tour in 2010.
“I was by her side virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Jennifer O’Neill said in her deposition.
“That includes sleeping in the same bed with her. Because she did not sleep alone.”
When asked if it was requirement for Jennifer O’Neill to share the same sleeping quarters with Lady Gaga, she responded: “I felt it was.”
Jennifer O’Neill said that she was the only member of Lady Gaga’s entourage that didn’t have her own hotel room.
“Unlike anybody else on that tour, I did not have my own hotel room. I was not asked if I wanted my own hotel room,” she said.
“I had no privacy, no chance to talk to any family, no chance to talk to any friends, no chance to have sex if I wanted to have sex. There was no chance to do anything.”
In the deposition documents, obtained by the New York Post, Jennifer O’Neill does not make any suggestion that she and Lady Gaga had any kind of sexual relationship.
But she claims that Lady Gaga was incredibly demanding, not giving her anytime to do anything for herself.
“And she was quite irate that she couldn’t reach me on my phone a couple of times, and was quite angry and asked me why she was paying for this hotel room if I was unreachable,” Jennifer O’Neill said in the deposition.
Jennifer O’Neill, Lady Gaga’s former personal assistant, has revealed she shared the same bed as Gaga during her Monster’s Ball tour in 2010
Jennifer O’Neill also describes one time that Lady Gaga made several demands whist O’Neill was trying to get her hair cut.
“She might have said <<I need some tea, I need – can you get my computer for me, can you get my phone, my battery is dead, I need a tampon, the toilet doesn’t flush>>,” Jennifer O’Neill said.
“Another thing she would do in the middle of the night, would be wake me up to have me change the DVD in the DVD player because she didn’t want to watch that DVD anymore and she couldn’t get up to walk across the room to change the DVD herself.”
Lady Gaga tweeted somewhat of a response to the new emerging details on her Twitter account on Saturday, claiming that Jennifer O’Neill had, as well as being her personal assistant, been one of her good friends.
“Everyone’s headlines need an updating. <<former assistant>> is actually <<my best friend from NY since I was 19>>. Painful stuff,” she wrote.
Jennifer O’Neill, from Long Island, launched her legal action against Lady Gaga, claiming she was overworked and underpaid, at the end of last year.
She was employed by the star for 13 months, accompanying her on her Monster Ball world tour in 2011.
Jennifer O’Neill, 41, alleges that she put in 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime and is now owed more than $380,000, according to the report in the New York Post.
The former personal assistant claims she had to cater to Lady Gaga’s at times unreasonable demands around the clock.
Jennifer O’Neill insists she had to ensure “the promptness of a towel following a shower and serving as a personal alarm clock to keep [Gaga] on schedule”.
She was not given breaks for meals “or, at times, even sleep”, and needed to be available at the star’s “earliest waking hour” or for “spontaneous, random matters in the middle of the night”, according to the court papers.
Jennifer O’Neill, who was paid $75,000-a-year, also had to ensue “the availability of chosen outfits”. Lady Gaga is, of course, famous for her eccentric wardrobe and once wore a meat dress to MTV Video Music Awards.
She filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court in December against Lady Gaga’s Mermaid Touring company for unpaid overtime.
Lady Gaga dismissed Jennifer O’Neill’s lawsuit in a video-taped deposition from August last year in New York, saying: “[Jennifer is a] f***ing hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn.
“She thinks she’s just like the queen of the universe. And, you know what, she didn’t want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I’m the queen of the universe every day.
“She knew there was no overtime, and I never paid her overtime the first time I hired her, so why would she be paid overtime the second time? This whole case is b******* and you know it.”
Jennifer O’Neill is not the first personal assistant to complain about working for Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta.
Former employee Angela Ciemny also claimed she was required to sleep with Lady Gaga most nights because she refused to be alone, according to the book Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga.
