Lizzo is facing a big lawsuit and some very serious accusations. The lawsuit? Hostile work environment and what amounts to sexual harassment and discrimination. Lizzo is being sued by three dancers from her most recent tour and they describe an extremely toxic work environment. This is soooo bad.
Three of Lizzo’s former dancers have accused the singer of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. They also allege that she pressured one of them to touch a nude performer at an Amsterdam club and subjected the group to an “excruciating” audition after leveling false accusations that they were drinking on the job.
The dancers accused Lizzo — a performer known for embracing body positivity and celebrating her physique — of calling attention to one dancer’s weight gain and later berating, then firing, that dancer after she recorded a meeting because of a health condition.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and provided to NBC News by the plaintiffs’ law firm, also accuses the captain of Lizzo’s dance team of proselytizing to other performers and deriding those who had premarital sex while sharing lewd sexual fantasies, simulating oral sex and publicly discussing the virginity of one of the plaintiffs.
The suit does not say if Lizzo knew about the allegations linked to the dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, but the plaintiffs believed the singer was aware of their complaints about her, according to their lawyer, Ron Zambrano.
The suit names Lizzo, whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson, her production company and Quigley as defendants. In addition to accusations of a hostile work environment and sexual harassment, the suit brings claims for religious and racial harassment, false imprisonment, interference with prospective economic advantage and other allegations. Not every claim was brought against each defendant.
“The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing,” Zambrano said in a statement.
You can read more at NBC News – the stuff from Amsterdam is pretty bad, but what strikes me more than anything is that Lizzo had really selective boundaries with her employees/subordinates – in certain circumstances, she would treat dancers like they were all BFFs, but in other situations, she would lord her employer status over those same people and threaten them constantly. Anyway, this sounds like a pretty open-and-shut case of a hostile work environment.
That dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, responded to the suit by… prosthelytizing on her social media. Imagine that sh-t at work. I would have been out of there so fast, good lord. Additionally, filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison shared her damning story about trying to do a tour-documentary with Lizzo and leaving after a few weeks because Lizzo was “arrogant, self-centered and unkind” and how the environment was toxic AF.
Lizzo’s dance captain, Shirlene Quigley, takes to Instagram following lawsuit that alleges she attempted to convert dancers to Christianity and inappropriately simulated oral sex in front of them:
“I just wanted to get on here really quick and say God is so, so good!” pic.twitter.com/c8CuFf0LdF
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 2, 2023
Sharing this because validating other Black women's experiences is deeply important to me. pic.twitter.com/gd2xEK6szq
— Sophia Nahli Allison (@SophiaNAllison) August 1, 2023
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 14: Lizzo attends the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. *** Local Caption *** LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 14: Lizzo attends the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 597615543, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: ED / LS / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 14: Lizzo attends the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. *** Local Caption *** LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 14: Lizzo attends the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Los Angeles Convention Center on March 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 597617466, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: ED / GB / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – JUNE 26: American singer Lizzo wearing a custom Gucci feathered gown arrives at the BET Awards 2022 held at Microsoft Theater at L.A. Live on June 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 703204801, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Lizzo, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, USA – AUGUST 28: Lizzo wearing a Jean Paul Gaultier Couture dress arrives at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards held at the Prudential Center on August 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey, United States.,Image: 717366553, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Lizzo, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- MTV Video Music Awards 2022 held at the Prudential Center. Featuring: Lizzo Where: Newark, New Jersey, United States When: 28 Aug 2022 Credit: Doug Peters/EMPICS/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
Incredibly disappointing and disgusting. I hope that her dancers can heal and they get proper compensation.
Perfectly said.
This story reminds of the malaise I felt while reading about Ellen Degeneres. Women in position of power disempowering their social and financial subordinates, and degrading their dignity, jeopardize the lofty concept that women ought to be put in positions of power because we shall not repeat the moral errors of our male counterparts.
I want these abusive women punished for crushing my dream.
I think that there has to be a strain of narcissism and arrogance in anyone, man or woman, who pursues fame and power. These stories rarely surprise me.
This has always been my reservation with the backlash/attack/whatever you want to call it on men lately. It’s never been a men vs. women thing to me. It’s always been about power. Throughout history men have absolutely behaved abominably towards and oppressed women and children. But they have also behaved abominably to other men/males and so have women. The common denominator always seems to be the man or women has gained some level of power or prominence and abused it.
Absolutely call out and fight the inappropriateness of patriarchy. But I feel like until we forget that all humans are capable of behaving reprehensible towards others they lead or exert some form of authority over. I think we do ourselves a disservice making this a man vs woman thing instead of addressing the issue of those in power/leadership and holding them accountable across the board. This business with Lizzo, if true is surprising, but not terribly shocking. It’s just more of the same to me. Unfortunately, there’s been so much angst over men behaving badly I DO think she might feel the consequences more harshly. Anyway, I know this is an unpopular opinion and y’all will probably @ me. Just sharing my own opinion on a gossip site at the end of the day I wish you all well and that none of you have to face it and are kind to others in a way that helps those who have find healing and encouragement.
@KC: Exactly my point, thanks! Toxicity in position of power is not about gender but about human nature -or its lack thereof.
@KC good points. My initial reaction was disappointment in “more of the same” power abuse too. Still, I don’t expect women to be sexual abusers of this sort. I just know that if someone tried to coerce me to perform or witness a sexual act as part of work, I’d be at the local law authorities so fast
True feminism acknowledges that women can be a-holes, too. The idea that women are somehow purer or less corruptible than men is also part of the patriarchy.
@Salmonpuff: Absolutely. The notion that women are pristine is by far one of the patriarchy’s most insulting infantilizing tropes. Real feminism should be about self-awareness in good faith.
I always had an off feeling about Ellen and Lizzo, too. Certain people put me off, vibe-wise ya know. Sometimes I can’t put my finger on it but now I can put my whole hand on it. Proof. Just mean aura, attitude plus certain interviews felt like too diva-ish for my taste. I figured different strokes, but she really is batting low with this behavior. And you’d think one would be careful now-a-days. She got too cocky, arrogant, careless and felt untouchable. Also, I honestly am all for body positivity (I’ve yo-yo dieted in my life, all about clean eating) but I don’t think she’s so much positive about her body as simply grossly overweight and trying to act as though it was her intention. A lot of these entertainers, if given a wish to lose weight fulfilled (genie) would absolutely do it. Like Rebel. They end up saying they lost weight for health reasons or lie about it not being for appearance sake. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good AND feel better, healthier. They’re not mutually exclusive.
Tbh, when I first saw her pic pop up in that dress, I thought she was hiding behind an elaborate shower curtain or drape. Interesting…choice. I don’t feel bad critiquing clothes, they can be changed. Like her attitude needs to.
I’ve been off the Lizzo train since the Postmates uproar in 2019. She doxxed and accused some poor Postmates driver of eating her food, when in fact she was staying in a hotel and hadn’t told the driver her room number.
I always had a weird negative feeling about her, despite her talent and positivity. Now I know why.
Me too. I followed her on IG a few months ago because I like the body positivity message but her vibe is really off – she comes across like a huge narcissist in her posts :/
She built her entire public image on positivity when in reality she was one of the worst people behind the scenes.
W.O.W. this is such a disappointment. no one should treat anyone else like the way Lizzo has treated her dancers/employees. Sad, she seemed like a positive role model for a bit.
This is terrible. Not only because of how the dancers were treated but it also shows that Lizzo’s body positivity stance was a fraud.
May I suggest – I’m not sure, after all, just a possibility – that Lizzo’s body positivity stance was NOT a fraud, that it was initially sincere, but that it turned out to be an overambitious, overenthusiastic, unrealistic personal goal too big for her to handle?
You cannot assert by decree that morbid overweight is positive and persuade yourself to accept that unscientific premise: you have to come to terms with it, it is a self-acceptance process that needs to be accompanied by therapy and personal healing.
Lizzo thought she could pro-actively replace that process with a social statement on body positivity. She might have fooled herself (and us) for a while, but her subconscious wasn’t fooled and it came back to haunt her -hence her alleged deprecating words to her dancers.
Thank-you. Your statement shows another facet and empathy. I’m not defending Lizzo. I am seeing this with a slightly different point of view re: why she would act like that.
@Sugarhere: The way she treated her dancers tells me that she didn’t believe in body positivity. It was a ploy made up by her PR handlers.
And the way she showcased herself says otherwise. A commercial ploy and believing in body positivity are not mutually exclusive, you know. Both my have skilfully intertwined to create the artistic persona that we know.
Anyways, nobody should get a pass for harassing people who are socially vulnerable.
That is so incisive and nuanced, and I really appreciate this observation. I am all in favor of body positivity. But I sometimes worry that it makes it difficult to have honest conversations about healthy eating and exercise habits, or to acknowledge that obesity needs to be addressed as an often complex mental and physical health issue. A simple mantra of body positivity isn’t going to resolve that issue, and what happened with Lizzo is one example of how that simplistic approach didn’t work.
Sugarhere—This is so well-said and insightful. ^^
The line b/t boss and friend is so tricky, and can be especially so for women. Makes me think about how I feel about vendors how have deep personal skills—hair stylists, graphic designers, etc—are not good at business stuff
@Annel – what you’ve said about health is so important and there should be a way to include that in the conversation without shaming and making it a moral or character issue.
Recent studies have shown a worrying increase in cancers among young people. From everything they’ve seen, it’s mostly from increased obesity and decreased exercise, plus lifestyle choices of diet, smoking, etc.
The details of this are so gross. Encouraged to eat the bananas from other people’s vajes? At or as part of work? You have got to be kidding me. Forced to touch other people’s nude bodies and not respecting when someone said no? This is not body positivity, this is degradation and a form of violence.
Making dancers fear you and fear for their livelihoods to the point that they soil themselves out of anxiety because they dreaded leaving the stage to use the bathroom and face punishment, then putting that person in see-through undies and nothing else? The people in charge sound deranged.
And of course, targeting the Black women and calling them lazy or labeling them with bad attitudes. Sounds like every other workplace—toxic and hostile with no protections.
So, so disappointing and I believe all of it.
I agree. The details are stomach-turning. What a major disappointment.
I never expected this from Lizzo. Other celebs maybe, but not her.
Yes, the allegations are vile and literally made me nauseous. I hope these women get justice.
Shirlene out here doing all that work for the plaintiffs’ attorneys…
Adults talking in baby voices is so irritating. She seems like the type who holds your hands, nods, smiles and doesn’t hear a single word you say when you come to her with serious concerns about her behavior. ugh.
Baby talk voices from grown-ass adults when there aren’t any babies (or small children sometimes) in sight is on my own personal list of warning signs. It’s a “when someone shows you who they are” thing for me
@Izzy 😆
That video is showing up at discovery for sure. It also provides confirmation about the allegations of her attempts to convert people to Christianity. The arrogance to post something like that the day the story comes out is going to be used extensively by the Plaintiff lawyers.
My thought watching that was, “God isn’t going to save you now from the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Shirlene.”
God is going to be all, “I help those who help themselves, and you aren’t helping yourself here!”
I couldn’t listen to her for too long. But yeah, she’s certainly not helping herself!
Lol Izzy! So true!
What happened to people just being kind, professional, friendly and decent? If Lizzo and her dance captain behave like this I’m glad people will be able to see it now, and I hope they suffer the appropriate consequences for treating people like that. I really hope these ladies get all the compensation they deserve, what they went through sounds demeaning and horrible.
I’ve been sideeying Lizzo since I heard that she loves her some Chris Brown, but this!?!? Holy sh*t. I feel terrible for these women. What a toxic, abusive environment to try and work in.
I couldn’t believe when she fan girled Chris Brown either but what really shocked me was her posting info about her female door dash driver online and using her social media presence to accuse and dox her then offer a soft ooh my bad non apology and people cut her so much slack. I’ve been side eyeing Lizzo hard since that incident. She reminds me a lot of an ex friend who has the mentality of I got mine everyone else is just jealous of me to justify her crap behavior. Some woc will be performative in front of white people to gain acceptance and make a buck. They embrace capitalism over feminism and will treat other poc badly because at the end of the day they really bought into the me first and only bs our society sells. Trouble is when you betray your own people the privileged people will enjoy roasting you ten times harder than they do a white person
Very well said. I never looked at her the same after she bullied that poor driver. I think it happened with another delivery too, She is not a nice person and I am surprised it took this long for others to see past the BS facade
She did same thing to a Postmate delivery lady, who couldn’t drop her order bc she bought it on her real name, while staying at a hotel under alias. She later apologized and blamed it on alcohol, didn’t try to skip trial btw. But yes I never looked at her same way. One thing is becoming a diva, which I think could be hard to avoid over her need to develop a thick skin bc of her weight, and another is to give a vexing treatment to those under you. Particularly if you’re berating something you claim to be proud of. I think she’s wanted to champion body positivity but at the end being morbidly obese can be a problem for her. Not only in terms of how trolls, haters and industry clichés might have affected her. But maybe also in terms of her health. Yes, morbidly obese people should not ve treated as inferior and also yes, morbid obesity is a health hazard. Anyway, this is a horrid thing to do and I do hope both her and her dance captain pay for what they did.
This. I enjoy her music, but her support of Brown is icky. Makes this far less surprising. Between this and her song “Tempo” which feels like a follow up to Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass”, I’m not blown away that she doesn’t actually believe in body positivity or full autonomy for women. She’s only a feminist as long as it’s convenient for her.
Holllllllyyyyyy shit. This is so bad. I feel like I’ve just gotten on the Lizzo train in the last year or so and now I feel like I never should have bought a ticket. This is horrible.
Wow. What a truly toxic situation and Lizzo pretending to be such a positive person. I hope those who were traumatized will be able to get help and heal.
Is anyone surprised, I’m not.
Do you remember the whole Chris Evans incident where Lizzo kept going after him? Clearly Lizzo has issues with boundaries and respecting them.
It was a matter of time a lawsuit like this happened. If you read the allegations in detail, it is bad, really bad.
I was not surprised at all when I read these allegations. Not sure why but I read the article and simply thought – huh, well somehow this tracks!!!
Is it just me or has anyone else come to the point where the default is now ‘humans are trash unless they prove otherwise to me’ instead of what it used to and should be of ‘human are inherently good until their actions and words show me they are trash’.
@JackieJacks for me, yes. But that’s because I’ve been stalked twice and doxxed once, and recently verbally assaulted by a neighbor. I’ve seen some shit in my life. Basically I keep my life to my family that I made these days, and try to raise my kids not to be awful. The person who doxxed me is a fuckin BAND MOM…my kids are in band. And of course she’s close with a bunch of the other band moms. I am not. So I side eye the shit out of all of them. That whole polite in public but suspicious all the time thing. I don’t trust any of their asses.
@JackieJacks I’ve had that mind set since high school. People call me bitter, I call me experienced.
I am not surprised by any of this. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton was correct, no matter the when or where or who.
What Chris Evans thing? What did I miss?
She started sending him a bunch of inappropriate messages publicly, even drunk messaged that she was pregnant with his child. He’s married. He was very gracious about it all though and just joked about it in response. But what she did was VERY tacky and intrusive.
@TikiChica, sorry was in class and could not answer.
Yep, she messaged CE and even after he gently joked about it and tried to shut her down, she kept at it. He very clearly was not interested, but she had zero respect for his boundaries and kept hounding him.
I was going to post something about that and showing the lack of boundaries. That was so cringeworthy.
@jaded Chris isn’t married but it was still side eye worthy.
@tikichica she drunk dm’ed him hitting on him and then publicly shared a video going on about it. He graciously replied he’s done embarrassing things like that and it was all good. But she just kept up the campaign of publicly hitting on him. Saying she was pregnant with his baby. Wanting him to play piano on her album. (He’d just shown a clip of him playing on social media.) It was full of secondhand embarrassment.
It started people shipping them and egging her on and tagging him on social media, etc.
So, the same person who doxxed a Postmates courier over a mistake she herself made and who stated Chris Brown is her favourite person in the whole world, seems to have no qualms with punching down and abusing her employees? So not surprising and so easy to believe her employees. They’ve got all my sympathies.
That was awful. The driver stopped delivering because of online harassment and threats. She not only revealed their name but their photo.
Exactly! I really couldn’t understand that Lizzo would go to these ruthless lengths, and subject that poor driver to all these threats. After that incident, I was out.
Time and time again, it seems to come down to “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Yikes yikes yikes. I did not see this coming. What a mess. 🙁
The banana stuff is soooo weird, but it’s super disappointing to read she was on her dancers if they gained weight! She has been know for body positivity, but turns out it was all a lie.
The banana thing is assault!
The banana thing was nonconsensual, but was not at the level of assault. The banana performer was being paid to do it in a legal setting. The charge is that she kept pushing someone to do it after being told no. That’s not assault, but it’s unethical.
Oh noooo, I saw her in concert last month! The music was great obviously but she must have known this was in the pipeline as my friends and I commented that she seemed totally not into it, low energy, limited talking to the crowd, it was really unlike what I knew of her public persona. We just assumed illness, little did we know.
That really sucks, hope the dancers win their case- it’s telling Lizzo hasn’t immediately commented, makes me think everything must be going through 10 layers of PR/legal.
It’s generally a really bad idea to comment on an active lawsuit. Competent legal counsel will tell you to STFU.
This is a dynamic I’m all too familiar with: boss doesn’t know how to manage, so they basically approach the staff like an extended high school friend group (“we’re FaMiLY here!”) – happy hours, joking around, etc. – which invariably leads to favoritism (“I like you! You’re so nice to me, so now you’re my BEST friend/employee”), then the ensuing resentment from the non-favored employees, and then any work issues with the out-of-favor employees get handled like a mean-girl clique dispute (“You’re not my friend anymore! You’re fired!”).
Management is tough, and most of us need training and education to do it right. You cannot apply friend and family rules of conduct to it, even if you have healthy conflict resolution dynamics in your friend/family groups (which many of us don’t). Just because you’re in the arts doesn’t mean you get to skip those lessons when managing your team. I hope Lizzo learns from this and tries to make amends.
💯%
It reeks of someone hiring friends or making a clique out of unqualified upper management. People laughing behind closed doors at subordinates, with the full participation if not leadership of the one in charge. Most people are not qualified to be managers and one certainly isn’t without real training. That goes for every profession, not just the haphazard entertainment and music bizzes. Not many stars have what it takes to be leaders—that’s not to take away from their talent, it’s just to say they need good, QUALIFIED people in place to manage personnel and logistics. (And that person is not their parent either.)
Whew, you just described a working situation I had last year. I’ve still got whiplash from it. The whole “we’re family” thing. Yeah. Add in some everyone’s gonna pray together after the meeting, but if you don’t want to, you can leave the room. Being the only one out a group of 30 to walk out and leave everyday was super fun. When I suggested, why don’t you just say group prayer will be held here at this time everyday for those who want to join rather than asking people to leave the room, that did not go over well. It was something.
UGH. That sounds like a horrible experience!
True and very insightful.
Shannon, I spent my career in HR investigating and in a few cases, experiencing horrible bosses (happy to say they all, eventually, “left” the company) and this resonates so much for me. I also think in many cases the boss in question doesn’t have much of a life outside of work and is seeking that social validation, leading to overstepping boundaries (your description of We’re family! Happy hour! Team building activities! is spot on). Those of us with families and friends outside of work who just want to do our job and go home don’t “fit” or provide that ego boost. Managing successfully really does require an almost detached professionalism. I can see it being tougher in an environment like touring but agree, no one gets a pass.
People need to realize that the vast majority of celebrities are just not great people. Yes, that likely includes some of your favorites.
They may do nice things i n public, but in private they think bc they’re famous and/or rich, they are above everyone else and act accordingly.
I think you’ve hit a big nail on the head here – we need to stop idolizing celebrities and thinking their fame somehow makes them amazing people. Most of their public images are built entirely by PR teams. It’s all fake. the real person behind the celebrity is often not a very nice one – why else are so many comfortable taking money from dictators to perform? support abusers? etc.
Also, just because they’re talented in one particular way doesn’t mean they know anything else or have other skills.
Even the celebrities who start out okay can easily become enchanted by their own celebrity. It all goes to their head, and pretty soon you have a monster who has lots of power and is famous. It takes a very strong character to remain humble and kind under the influence of fame and fortune.
100%
Couldn’t agree more. Never forget the level of narcissism a person has to have to pursue celebrity as a lifestyle, no matter what their occupation might be. At this stage I just assume every celebrity is an awful human, no matter what they project in public.
I heard Kevin Hart interviewing David Letterman recently, and DL admitted this about himself.
Agreed, most have narcissistic traits.
I’m so disappointed. I hope everyone affected gets what they need to heal from it.
Wow. I never really followed the Lizzo gossip train but this all sounds horrific.
This is so awful it doesn’t read like a made up story. I feel so bad for these people, I was in a toxic work environment that wasn’t even near as toxic as this and it left me quite traumatised.
What a stark contrast to the article earlier today about T-swifts bonuses and tour schedule. Say what you will, but the best way to make your employees feel appreciated is to treat them with respect and compensate accordingly.
When I saw this yesterday, I thought “Oh no, not Lizzo, too.” I don’t follow her behind the scenes, so I bought the positive persona.
I was unaware of all the trash things she has done, until reading this post and the comments. Oh, I wanted to like her. But no amount of talent or goodwill I want to give somebody makes up for being a toxic-ass person.
If you watched the reality show about casting her dance crew, there were signs of potential trouble. Once you are auditioning and bringing in more people from outside the core group, not everyone you hire is going to be the wild and adventurous, sexually exploring type that you may be wanting to surround yourself with for the tour. How to handle that is a hard question.
A reality of the theatrical world is that the costumes are expensive and dancers and actors are often cast because they fit the costumes available. How that gets balanced with body positivity and supporting actors and dancers is another hard question.
On performers being terrible people – I’m old enough to have been a fan pre-internet. As a teen interested in movies, what I learned from were movie star (and director) biographies from the library. Quick lesson in no one’s public persona matching their private life. It’s just not possible. The work required to be “Lizzo” is incompatible with the “Lizzo” that is publicly presented to the world. I really hope she’s able to learn from this and figure out how to have better boundaries. One of the terrible things about everything being so precarious these days is that people don’t feel they can walk away from jobs that aren’t a good fit. That needs to be figured out as well.
Currently reading a 1000+ biography of Barbara Stanwyck. Apparently she had a terrible temper and hated just about everyone in Hollywood. So she stayed home.
Could it be that humans in general aren’t all that nice? I mean just look at us?
+1 unfortunately
Yup, I’d tend to agree with that.
This reminds me so much of Ellen DeGeneres or stories about how toxic Lea Michelle was on set. I’m sure more stories are going to come out because people feel safer now to tell their stories. Most of these people are terrified to speak out in these situations because they are going up against powerful people, they don’t want to lose their jobs, and they’re worried no one will believe them.
Similarly I’ve worked with some absolutely toxic people, probably a few sociopaths too…
This is a people thing, not a celebrity thing. It might be enhanced or the stakes be higher where there is a lot of money, power, or influence at play.
I’ve accepted that most famous people do not seem to be good people–or, at the very least, they are no stranger to doing really bad things. Being a celebrity simply affords too much power, too much publicity, and too much influence. We are all victims of their unrelenting PR machines! I think the best approach is to just enjoy their creative output (or not) and move on.
This is a hard one
I’ve seen in life that hurt people hurt others, especially when they come into positions of power
She must be nursing a lot of hurt that she in turn -unfairly- brought onto those she has power over
I am praying for those affected, the banana story was just horrific. I can’t even imagine the environment and the mental torture it must have been. Kudos to them for speaking up. I do hope lizzo gets the help she most definitely needs and she is able to gain some self awareness and accountability
Sad all around
This is what keeps going through my mind. Her behavior is very controlling and that can be a sign someone is trying to move past prior abuse without doing the therapeutic work to deal with the prior abuse. Bullied people often become bullies and try to control other people because they can’t control their emotions.
Regardless of what caused this behavior, I hope Lizzo gets help and I hope her abuse survivors win the lawsuit and get support to help them deal with all of this.
Agreed–she sounds like she’s been abused, never got treated, used success to make up for it…and is taking her self-hatred out on folks who won’t let her run them–or threaten her omnipotent fantasy. What she did is deeply degrading, crazy-public behavior, and it shows how far gone she was to 1) forget all about social media being 24/7 2) think she could continue to get away with it.
Bee, I agree totally. I personally know of two cases in which the lawsuits against the bosses were bogus. Not saying that is true here, but let the process of justice continue. Accusations are not established facts. Why condemn Lizzo before this is all played out in court?
Whew, this is some terrible shit.
This is kind of the problem with worshipping celebrities, though. At some point, they’ll disappoint you. Of course, this is an exceptionally long fall from grace, but the perpetual cycle of propping up and then tearing down continues.
And that’s not to say that this isn’t deserved, just to say that maybe we shouldn’t be putting these folks on a pedestal to begin with.
Just awful behavior.
Why is it so hard for so many people to just be decent and treat people, their employees especially, with respect?
Most celebrities who make it to the top crush a lot of people supporting them on the way up the ladder to success. They don’t get to that level of fame and fortune by being nice people, and the more famous and successful they become, the more their egos spiral out of control. Power corrupts.
This is so sad to hear. I liked her. How awful. I’ve had a female boss be sexually harassing to staff, not in a predatory for herself way but in an intimidating way where she needed to know all kinds of stuff about what we did w our significant others.
Long story short. If you’re a boss, do NOT talk to subordinates about sex. Just don’t. Maybe if you’re prior friends but otherwise… you don’t realize your position and power and your effect…so don’t do it
I’ve always been Meh… on her . I thought her displays( shaking her thong covered rear at a basketball game) were in bad taste and it had nothing to do with her size( before you come for me) but because I don’t want to see ANYONE’S almost naked behind at any event I’m attending. She was very stalker-ish with Chris Evans and I side -eye to hell and back anyone who capes for Chris Brown.
Remember the time she attacked a Pitchfork critic who gave her album an ok-but-not-great (very thoughtful!) review? And Lizzo tweeted she should be unemployed? Yeah between that and the Chris Brown and UberEats crap Lizzo has kinda been telling on herself for a while.
I can’t say I’m surprised by this. I’ve read before that Lizzo treats restaurant employees like sh*t.
Yep–always a red flag. Always.
This is incredibly disappointing, but when I think about it, I’m not really that surprised. Lizzo has always struck me as a somewhat chaotic and dangerous drunk – not dangerous in the way that she’d physically hurt people, but dangerous as in she might just lose control and do all kinds of stuff that is crazy and inappropriate – stuff that the people around her might not want to be part of, but they feel like they have to because she’s her boss. Never, NEVER, party with your boss. If your boss is the sort of person who wants you to get hammered with her then you are in danger of a lot of things. It makes me sick that her dancers had to endure what allegedly went down in Amsterdam, and also I think we will probably hear more about what working under her during this tour has been like, but I think that Lizzo needs to get a handle on her drinking and self-regulate when it comes to interacting with her EMPLOYEES.
I bought into Lizzo’s public image, and was shocked by the accusations. Several people are supporting the former dancers and Beyoncé has taken her name out of Break My Soul. I hope that the women get the support and healing they need. The working conditions were horrible.
Lizzo was in Amsterdam at the end of February. The day before her concert, she showed up to a museum with Myke stoned on mushrooms. I’m not sure when she went to the NSFW Bananenbar, but several of you mentioned incidents with alcohol, like Aelione above, that have led to inappropriate behavior. Hopefully if Lizzo is struggling she’ll also get help.
How she treats people has to change.
Anyone who shows up to a work event “stoned on mushrooms” is a fool. Sounds like she cannot handle her life and fame. Good riddance to anyone who punches down to elevate themselves, addiction issues or not.
Yipes–she’s got addiction problems as well?!? She sounds out-of-control.
Lizzo was created by the industry who came up with the way to sell her as a musical artist. I am appalled by this news, but I also always thought she is very likely a heavily damaged person. No excuse for being a bad employer. Hope she and her team get their act together, or pay the price.
I think it also sounds like she may have substance abuse issues?
What a horrible lady, I am honestly shocked and surprised, didnt think she was an abuser and a narc! canceled.