A former E! producer says she was fired for allowing criticism of the network on the Golden Globes red carpet go to air.
The night of the awards, multiple actresses, including Debra Messing and Eva Longoria, voiced solidarity with Catt Sadler, the former “E! News” host who left the network claiming pay inequity with her male counterparts. (E! has denied the accusation that she was unfairly compensated).
The producer, Aileen Gram-Moreno, has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying she was unfairly dropped by the network after letting Longoria’s comments air and was replaced by a male producer with a higher title, according to the New York Times.
Gram-Moreno, a freelancer, had been booked for a number of upcoming awards shows, including the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Grammys and the Oscars, bookings which were canceled by an unnamed executive producer after the night of the Globes.
E! denies that criticism of the network had anything to do with the decision not to bring Gram-Moreno back for future red carpet coverage, citing instead a “pattern of poor performance.”
According to the network, Gram-Moreno was tasked with screening interviews and was asked by a supervisor to flag mentions of Sadler, and Longoria’s interview went unflagged. E! Entertainment president Adam Stotsky said in an interview with the Times that the producer was supposed to “screen all of the assets completely and obviously she failed to do that.”
“For the past decade Aileen Gram Moreno was a freelancer who worked an average of 20 days per year solely for our red carpet coverage,” an E! spokesperson said in a statement to TheWrap. “After the Golden Globes she was asked not to return due to job performance issues. Following an attempt to force E! to pay for her silence Ms. Moreno is now spreading misleading and inaccurate information.”
An individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap that prior to filing the complaint, Gram-Moreno made multiple failed attempts to secure a “seven-figure” settlement.
E!’s red carpet coverage at the Oscars has already been under a microscope. Earlier this week, new details of Ryan Seacrest sexual misconduct accusations made by a former “E! News” stylist were made public.
In response, the network said those allegations had been investigated by a third party last year — an investigation which turned up “insufficient evidence to support the claims” — and confirmed that Seacrest would continue to host the networks red carpet coverage as planned.