Rosie O’Donnell is being sued by former senior producer of The View Jennifer Shepard-Brookman, who claims O’Donnell got her fired from the ABC daytime program by slandering her in front of the show’s producers, Page Six reports.
Shepard-Brookman worked on The View from 2001 to 2015 and filed a complaint against O’Donnell Thursday in New York State court.
Shepard-Brookman says former View co-host O’Donnell is a bully and “accused Ms. Brookman of teaming with Ms. Goldberg to undermine Ms. O’Donnell,” the complaint reads. According to The Hollywood Reporter, O’Donnell had accused Shepard-Brookman of conspiring to “shift the coverage of the beheading of journalist James Foley by ISIS from O’Donnell to Goldberg.”
“At that time, Ms. O’Donnell intimidated Ms. Brookman by screaming that she ‘owned’ the story and was upset that Ms. Goldberg covered the story, reportedly grabbing the arms of the chair in which Ms. Brookman was sitting, leaning very close to her face and prohibiting her from leaving,” the lawsuit claims.
“My client started crying. She was scared of Rosie and thought she was going to be assaulted,” said Shepard-Brookman’s attorney, Brian Kennedy.
Moreover, O’Donnell allegedly “publicly accused Ms. Brookman of betraying professional and personal confidences and leaking certain sensitive information to the media” in a meeting with producers, where O’Donnell continued to spread false accusations, according to Shepard-Brookman.
Shepard-Brookman was fired from the show and denies any claims she leaked information to the media.
O’Donnell had a strained relationship with producers of The View the year following her return to the show and ultimately resigned from her position as co-host this February, citing “personal reasons.”
O’Donnell’s attorney, Nicolle Jacoby, has called the allegations against her client “baseless,” saying O’Donnell plans to defend herself “vigorously” in court.
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