Imagine being the wife of a billionaire hedge-funder and getting to hang out with cool celebrities all the time. Now imagine that your (transactional) friendships with certain celebrities gives you a “pass” to drop racial slurs. So it is with Lisa Falcone, wife of Philip Falcone. Lisa is described as a “socialite” and in public appearances, she dresses like Paris Hilton circa 2002. Apparently, she said some racist sh-t to her cook and her cook’s girlfriend, then used the “I have black friends” defense. It’s a mess! Page Six always does these completely random stories about rich people behaving badly and/or getting sued, but this story is just… mind-boggling.
The wife of a billionaire hedge funder claims she’s not racist for using the n-word because she’s friends with Alicia Keys. Lisa Falcone, the wife of beleaguered hedge funder Philip Falcone, told her former personal chef she wasn’t racist after using the n-word — and said he could ask her black friend Alicia Keys to confirm, according to new court papers.
Falcone allegedly dropped the n-bomb after meeting cook Brian Villanueva’s girlfriend, who is black, according to a wage-dispute lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday against the socialite and her Harbinger Capital hubby. Villanueva said his gal pal came in to help him cook for a Hamptons dinner party the Falcones were hosting on July 13, 2019 — attended by Keys and her husband Swizz Beatz — and the next morning Lisa commented on how articulate his partner was.
“Your girlfriend speaks very well. She seems educated. I would describe her as a chocolate-covered marshmallow,” the chef claims Lisa said. Despite Villanueva appearing visibly offended, she went on to ask “Do you use the word ‘n—-’ at home with your girlfriend?” say the court papers. “Defendant Lisa Falcone noticed the shocked and offended expression on Plaintiff’s face, however, rather than apologize, she said defensively, ‘I’m Puerto Rican and grew up in Spanish Harlem so I can speak like that,’” the suit reads.
The lawsuit says Villanueva asked his boss to explain the comments, and she responded that neither Keys nor her hubby, whose real name is Kasseem Dean, were as well-spoken.
“I meant she speaks really eloquently. Alicia [Keys] doesn’t speak that way. She didn’t have an education and was just discovered by Clive Davis when she was fifteen years old. Swizz [Beatz] definitely doesn’t speak that way either,” Lisa allegedly told him. Later that day, Villanueva claims he delivered pizza to the Falcones on the beach, and told them he was quitting due to the racist remarks.
“Rather than accepting Plaintiff’s resignation, Defendant Lisa Falcone asked Plaintiff not to resign and stated ‘talk to my black friends’ (seemingly referring to Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz — both of whom were at the beach with the Falcones at that time), and emphasized ‘they will tell you that I am not racist,’” the documents read.
He’s suing for discrimination and violation of New York labor laws, saying he’s owed $4,230.76 in unpaid wages. The lawsuit also claims Philip said he would only pay Villanueva if he and his girlfriend signed a confidentiality agreement promising to not repeat Lisa’s utterances. They declined to sign.
[From Page Six]
The Falcones should have just paid this poor man before everything leaked to Page Six, my God. All of this because they wouldn’t pay him $4200!! Anyway, Lisa Falcone sounds like an absolute a–hole and I totally believe that the wife of a hedge-funder would talk like this. She thought she was being “street” I guess. Mess. And it’s not Alicia Keys’ fault, but Alicia needs to stop hanging out with this broad. Stop being “the black friend” to clueless a–holes, Alicia!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I have a STRONG feeling that Alicia in no way gave this woman a pass to use the n-word and this biotch just assumed she could because she had “black friends” . I mean – she basically called Alicia AND Swizz ignorant behind their backs. I also have a feeling that they aren’t friends of HERS – but her husband’s. All that being said they need to drop this racist a$$ biotch.
Ugh, that’s horrifying. How are so many rich people so stupid and ignorant? Also, she needs some powder, stat.
Say whaaat? The fact that this didn’t get shot down means there were witnesses. Please Alicia, please, tell us something or at least stop hanging out with fools.
Good God, There is so much bias all over this idiot’s statements — she showed her ass when she opened her mouth to remark on the gf’s eloquence — she didn’t even need to drop the n word. Only f-ing racists are surprised by another race being educated and well-spoken! I wonder how many “black friends” she will have left after this article.
You don’t become a billionaire or billionaire trophy wife without being a d*ck. There seem to be very very few exceptions but if you make your money like this, being in private equity or hedge funds or whatever… no.
Too true!
I am dying laughing at this lady’s getups especially the prominent cross necklace.
There is also a great mugshot of ma’am out there from a 2012 DWI in the Hamptons.
Plaintiff Villanueva should have delivered that pizza-on-the-beach straight into the Falcones’ laps, I admire his restraint.
This bitch is married to a billionaire and they probably have a chauffeur but she got a DWI? Trash!
Why are so many people so anxious to use the “n” word anyway. I am black and I never use it and I never use other racial slurs either. It has always been the rule that the only people who , in theory, can use racial slurs are people of that ethnic group. It is simple and easy to understand so why does this keep coming up?
THIS, 100 x.
WHY DO WHITE FOLK WANT TO USE THAT DISGUSTING WORD SO BADLY? Do they think it will automatically translate to “I have black friends and they’re OK with me using this word”? because…um…news flash…IT DOESN’T TRANSLATE THAT WAY. I have white friends and black friends and Hispanic friends, and…even the white ones who are LITERALLY HALF- OR STEP- SISTERS with some of the black friends, raised together, WOULD NOT use that word.
Alicia Keys, CANCEL THIS B*TCH.
I’m white and I find it easy to never, ever use that word. Not when I’m alone and not when I’m around other people. Just never, ever. It’s really very easy.
Ashipper, me too. very, very easy.
I don’t use it either (I’m black) and neither does anyone I know, no matter the background. I don’t get it-at.all.
Exactly. No need to say this at all. Us white folks need everything to be ours apparently, even slurs.
In my house we listen to a lot of rap and even then don’t say the n word when we sing along. It’s not that hard.
I think it just boils down to a basic cellular resistance to the idea that there is something that they can’t have. I don’t judge either way what relationship Black people have to the word. We paid for it with death, blood and bondage, and it now belongs to us. And I think for SOME White folk there is a cognitive dissonance around there being something that belongs to us that they can’t have.
I am white and I think that the reason some white people still use this horrible slur is that they THINK they are close enough to a black person or the black community that they get a pass. In her case, I bet she thinks she gets a pass because of all the money that she and her husband have donated to social causes (IMO this is even more offensive than the other reasons). Anyone with an ounce of awareness (doesn’t matter if you are white or not) should KNOW by now that it’s a horribly offensive racial slur and that they shouldn’t let that word come out of their mouth under any circumstance — there is no “pass.”
This is it exactly. We get to have literally everything except permission to use one word and that is apparently unacceptable to some people.
The way I see it is, if it hasn’t been hurled at your ancestors as they were enslaved, abused and killed and it hasn’t been weaponized against you to degrade, dehumanize and inflict pain, then you don’t have the right to f***ing say it. Only people who have experienced that can decide to use it or not use it.
And has this woman never met white people with varying levels of intelligence and education? Why is his girlfriend’s intelligence a surprise to her if not for her being racist AF?
@ItReallyIsYouNotMe
Interesting perspective. For clarification, are you saying that Black people too, don’t get a “pass?” I don’t want to jump to conclusions.
I think that is EXACTLY what it is! They’re racists and they’re not gonna let some black person tell them how they can speak. Because those white racists view black people as less than them . EVERYONE KNOWS YOU DON’T USE THE N WORD IF YOU’RE WHITE. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
I think it’s basically “Nobody tells me what I can and cannot say.” It’s a reaction to being called on their bs and they can’t handle it.
My mom likes to pull the ‘Why can black people say it but we can’t?” I always immediately respond with “Why would you want to?” She’ll make some floundering response, but never anything that makes sense.
I’m not black, so it’s none of my business when they say it, imho.
@GirlMonday I should have chosen those words more carefully. I don’t think A white person has the privilege to legislate what a black (or any other race) person calls themselves. I was saying that all white people should know by now that whites don’t get a pass under any circumstances. BTW, thank you for not jumping to conclusions.
I don’t think I’ve ever gone from having never heard of a person in my life to despising them as quickly as I just did with this woman. What a piece of trash in every way.
+1
Second that
Why are there so many White people who are desperate to use that word? Is it their privilege that refuses to accept that Black people can do something they can’t? Isn’t being able to survive an encounter with the police enough?
And if Keyes is friends with this woman, well that makes me wonder about Keyes.
If you use it, and you’re not black yourself, and you don’t feel instantly trashy and terrible and like you just murdered someone, you are, in fact, a racist. It’s a word LOADED with pain and oppression, why the f*ck would you use it? It’s really easy to not say it. Just DON’T say it.
All her botox must have cut off her empathy for others, cause she appearently doesn’t give a shit about anyone else than herself.
I can’t with these kinds of people. Just stop with the marginalization. And the “eloquent” comment… stop. Shut up. Go away with that crap.
God, her outfits. Woof. She looks like a deranged ice dancer!
Seriously, how old is she? That pink dress looks like something a four-year-old would wear.
Who dis racist bitch? She literally lists all the prejudices she has while claiming not to be racist. If you speak articulately, then you’re white. Btw Alicia Keys went to Columbia for a year…an Ivy League school this ho couldn’t sleep her way into if she tried. She needn’t worry, she’ll soon no longer be able to say “I have black friends”. I know plenty of black men/women who talk in slang and a second later like a corporate executive. This bitch is just letting her insecurities hang like fruit.
She’s offensive on every level. Comically so, as well as her ‘look’ lol. So sad that so much money is wasted on people of such low caliber but then…commander in cheeto.
So this lawsuit is because she won’t pay him 4200 dollars…So she’s racist and cheap.
tacky trick.
Oooof. I’m guessing (or at least hoping ) Alicia and her husband will no longer be this idiot’s “black friends” after this revelation.
I’m so tired of people being horrible.
Racism and bigotry and exploitation are the BIGGEST PLANKS in rich folks’ psychological infrastructure…it’s how they make their money…and they WORSHIP MONEY…it’s how they have ALWAYS made their money…and anyone who is Black or Brown who hangs out with them… are getting EXACTLY what they deserve…to be treated as accessories and to be discounted….because the RULE is what I stated above regarding rich folks…and there are FAR TOO FEW EXCEPTIONS TO THAT RULE
Nope, nope, nope. She is soon to have her ass handed to her and rightly so.
That top photo looks like Whitney Cummings in the not so distant future.
This woman has always amazed me with her stupidity and arrogance.
NOPE.
I hear this *a lot* from a few women I work with who are Puerto Rican, and its definitely everywhere in the circles I work in in NYC (meaning, lots of grass roots services, non profit work, which feels even more uncomfortable due to the social justice slant ). I’m always baffled and deeply uncomfortable with this. I mean, if you are black/African American, I’m not going to police your language but as a white woman I never quite know what to do with someone who is latinx and uses it (from light to dark skin). While this story horrifies me on multiple levels it’s also really common for me to hear the n word among other ethnicities/races. Truly asking, can anyone please advise? I absolutely call out racism and any other disgusting behavior among my peers but among groups who have been historically marginalized I’m often left a bit speechless.
I would still call them out on it. I have met some Latinos who seem to think African American people are “below them,” so to speak. My husband is African American but has Puerto Ricans in his extended family so he speaks fluent Spanish. He has heard people he worked with calling him the n word in Spanish, not thinking he knew Spanish. It’s still racist, even if its coming from a minority. Imo, I think some racist whites “pit” the two groups against each other which doesn’t help. It’s 2 marginalized groups fighting for jobs in a white world.
This is all so helpful, thank you! I think, with the one person I have in mind who often uses it in from of our black co-workers, perhaps I’ll check in with the coworker about how they feel. Maybe they just aren’t comfortable confronting it, and perhaps that’s where I can use my voice.
Yes. I’m Dominican and Puerto Rican raised in NYC and it is very common for them, especially PR women, to use the n word like it’s nothing. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when Gina Rodriguez did it. They think they have a pass because they have black friends and their black friends never corrected them or stopped them from saying it. Not just that, there is a lot of anti-black attitudes among Dominicans and Puerto Ricans with the former making their beliefs far more obvious than the latter. They don’t think there is anything wrong with saying the n word because they aren’t saying it out of malice (in their minds) HOWEVER they are still dehumanizing people because when told not to use the word they start saying it more frequently on purpose, completely ignoring the history and offense of it. I know I said it a few times because that’s what I heard growing up and thought well I am not saying it with the ER at the end so I’m good until I took a class that really delved into how offensive and disrespectful it is and taught me that it isn’t a word I’m entitled to use so I said no more. That was decades ago. My apologies to black people for ever using it because it wasn’t my place or my right.
I grew up black in upper Manhattan and watched that neighborhood change over the years. When I was young up to about junior high the neighborhood was mostly Irish, Jewish and Black. Then white flight and then mostly Dominicans moved in. My very best friend then and now is a white Puerto Rican with a Black husband, daughters and grandkids. She doesn’t use the N word and neither do I. However my 3 sons and her 2 daughters use it all the time as do their teens. It is truly a younger generation thing. I don’t like it and never have but I also grew up during Jim Crow watching folks on TV being called N and treated as literal dogs with hoses turned on them. Men women and children. I feel as if White people don’t truly see Black people as completely human. This feeling/behavior translates to other racial groups as wanting to be seen as anything but Black. When the Dominicans first moved into the neighborhood I used to ask my best friend why they would speak Spanish so loudly, she replied that they don’t want to be seen as black. There really was no more explanation needed. This is why we try to explain that racism still exist and still happens to this very day, i.e, see Duchess Megan.
“Chocolate covered marshmallow”?
This is trashy and disgusting on so many levels.
Don’t go talking about other people’s education or lack thereof when you use dehumanizing terms like that. Her mentality is repulsive.