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Has Jimmy Fallon created a Late Night work environment that's too friendly to female employees? That's what one fired employee is claiming.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, former Late Night stage manager Paul Tarascio has filed a lawsuit against Fallon and NBC Universal, accusing Fallon of "gender bias," Per the suit, Tarascio claims he was fired from his position in early 2010 and replaced by a "totally incompetent woman."
What's more, Tarascio alleges that he isn't the only victim: He claims that Fallon has also fired audio technicians, a prop master and other male staffers and replaced them with women.
In the court documents, Tarascio refers to his female replacement as "a less qualified woman" who constantly asked him how to do her job and repeatedly failed at her stage managing duties.
Tarascio is suing for punitive damages and lost wages. The lawsuit claims that Fallon's director, David Diomedi, told Tarascio: "Jimmy just prefers to take direction from a woman." The suit also purports that Diomedi was pressured by producers to "knowlingly fabricate alleged performance issues" so that he could fire Tarascio.
Fallon's representatives and NBC Universal have not yet responded to these claims, and Fallon's typically busy Twitter account has gone silent.
Typically these situations are inverted. Fallon's fellow late-night host David Letterman got into some trouble last year for having affairs with his female staffers. He issued a public apology on his show, and the scandal blew over relatively quickly.
