According to Deadline Mo’Nique and Netflix have settled the lawsuit she filed against them in 2019. Mo’Nique claiming racial and gender bias as the basis for the suit however details of the deal weren’t disclosed.
In 2020 the comic and Precious Oscar winner, real name Monique Hicks, says the $500,000 she was first offered by Netflix in 2017 for a stand-up special was not just an insult but illegal.
Her gender and racial discrimination filing of last November over pay for a potential comedy special cites the tens of millions reportedly paid to the likes of Amy Schumer, Ricky Gervais, Ellen DeGeneres and Dave Chappelle for their Netflix specials.
The 2019 suit also alleges that “Netflix’s treatment of Mo’Nique began with a discriminatory low-ball offer and ended with a blacklisting act of retaliation.”
In rejecting the streamer’s motion to dismiss, Judge Andre Birotte Jr. said yesterday, “Mo’Nique plausibly alleges that, after she spoke out and called her initial offer discriminatory, Netflix retaliated against her by shutting down its standard practice of negotiating in good faith that typically results in increased monetary compensation beyond the ‘opening offer’ and denying her increased compensation as a result” (Read the full ruling here).
“While Netflix argues that the novelty of Mo’Nique’s claim and the absence of on-point legal authority for it should bar her retaliation claims outright, the Court disagrees,” the U.S. District Court judge added in a slap to the streamer.
Last month, lawyers for both sides argued the motion in a COVID-19-induced telephone hearing before Judge Birotte. Read further details below of this case that clearly isn’t going way for Netflix – unless they settle.
“Netflix courted Mo’Nique, saw what she had to offer and made her an offer,” lawyers for the Oscar winner declared Thursday in a multi-claim complaint filed in L.A. Superior Court (read it here). “But the offer Netflix made Mo’Nique wreaked [sic] of discrimination; it perpetuated the pay gap suffered by Black women.”
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