Lady Gaga and her former assistant Jennifer O’Neill have settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. The ARTPOP star’s ex-employee originally alleged that she was owed $393,000, plus damages, for 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime. Their trial was scheduled to begin on November 4, but Judge Paul Gardephe filed an order of dismissal on Monday, October 21.
In September, a number of details emerged that weren’t particularly flattering for either side. O’Neill claimed that the woman born Stefani Germonotta kept her on call at all hours, even when the artist was on vacation. “We were never really on vacation,” she testified. “Every time she leaves an appointment, every time she walks outside, she has to be fully dressed, fully makeup’d, full hair, full everything.”
O’Neill also said that she was never given her own hotel room while on tour and that she frequently slept in the same bed as Mother Monster, who required her to address her various needs throughout the night — an example given involved waking up the assistant to change a DVD in the middle of the night. Gaga argued that her employees didn’t work typical nine-to-five workdays, and that their cumulative hours wouldn’t amount to overtime.
As a condition of the settlement, O’Neill may not make another labor-related claim for the time in which she was employed by Gaga, and Gaga’s production company Mermaid Touring.
