ONTD Exclusive: Justin Baldoni was sued for racial discrimination, retaliation in 2021
I know. I know. Every moment this story is sucking the energy from our souls.
But rather than yet another Backgrid-fueled pap walk or anemic letter to the court, I have something a bit more interesting that isn’t being discussed.
According to a court filing from 2021, Justin Baldoni and his billionaire friend Steve Sarowitz were sued by the recently terminated Managing Editor of their upcoming podcast, Man Enough.
What the ex employee alleges is that he was hired on a two-year contract with one company, called WEL, with the promise that after two years he could potentially have an equity share. What he did not know is that Sarowitz and Baldoni already planned to move the podcast project from one company to another - thereby severing the contract.
Stick with me!
They knew they had lured this employee from a previous job with promises that this could be a permanent gig. They knew it wasn’t and that he would soon be an “at will” employee instead.
Here’s the really shady part.
The plaintiff, a Black man, said during his initial interview with Steve Sarowitz (co-owner and billionaire) in 2019, Sarowitz said “we need somebody here that looks like you”.
Then, shortly after the death of George Floyd, the company’s CFO Brian Singer began making comments about how “white” their company was and how the plaintiff was clearly “different” from everyone else. Plaintiff began feeling like he was getting an “angry Black man” label.
Another (white, female) employee took a screenshot of the Plaintiff’s private Instagram account and claimed Plaintiff was falsely accusing Singer of being racist. Plaintiff claims the post, a general one about racial bias, had nothing to do with Singer and was instead a broader social commentary.
When he confronted the white female employee, she filed an HR complaint for bullying.
A month later, Plaintiff spoke up about the inappropriate handling of an interview with a Black, queer guest on the podcast.
In the meantime, Baldoni allegedly continued to falsely assert that plaintiff’s job was safe and not at-will.
Well, you can guess what happened. He was terminated in September of 2020, before his initial two-year contract was set to expire. He also alleges he was offered a much smaller severance package than other non-Black employees who had also been let go.
They then re-hired him as a consultant with a big pay cut.
Plaintiff filed a racial discrimination complaint in October of 2020, at which point the company demanded his equipment back (even though he was supposedly still an employee). He was also stripped of his producer credit.
Finally, in November he was terminated for good - for undisclosed “performance issues”.
Ultimately the Plaintiff chose to sue over the initial racial discrimination and then later retaliation for speaking up.
Baldoni was also sued by a terminally ill young man for apparently stealing the script idea for Five Feet Apart, but that’s a story for another day.
In the meantime, might be worth asking how many lawsuits is too many for a company that claims to “harness the power of storytelling to champion inspirational stories that act as true agents for social change.”
Wayfarer settled with the Plaintiff for an undisclosed amount.
Source 1. Link to the official file.
Source 2. The full court document with Plaintiff’s name redacted.
Note to mods: this hasn’t yet been picked up by press so court documents are all we have as a source.