A Madison Avenue ad director might have been flattered if her boss compared her vocal talents to reality television sensation Susan Boyle, instead she’s suing because he said she looked like the matronly singer.
The relentless harassment against Laura Ziv, 45, of Princeton, NJ, allegedly delivered by manager Herve Pierini at the Manhattan headquarters of perfume giant Firmenich was so severe she suffered a brain hemorrhage from the stress, Ziv claims in the $6 million lawsuit.
Ziv says Pierini targeted her after she refused to build a competing fragrance brand using company time in early 2010.
“In January 2010, Pierini taunted Ziv at a party given by an executive of the biggest client at her home by repeatedly referring to Ziv as ‘Susan Boyle,’ a Scottish singer who is often taunted in the media as being old, fat and ugly,” the suit says.
Boyle, a stout Scot, wowed crowds when she belted out a beautiful version of “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables” on “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2009.
Pierini’s insults became more direct after the Boyle comparison.
“On one occasion when a fellow employee did not take the time for lunch, Pierini remarked to Ziv, in the presence of other employees and for them to hear, ‘Not like you fatty,’” according to legal papers.
Pierini later allegedly gestured toward Ziv during an office party and said, “Fatty here is having a cupcake.”
He then suggested she resign and when Ziv, her family’s sole breadwinner refused, the harassment allegedly continued.
Pierini moved Ziv off an account with the company’s biggest client, where she had tripled sales and took away a promised bonus, the suit says.
Ziv took a medical leave after her blood pressure skyrocketed following treatment for the nearly fatal brain hemorrhage, the suit says.
During her leave, Firmenich stopped paying her salary and cut off her benefits, but has not yet fired her, the court paper state.
She wants the payments to return plus $6 million in damages.
Neither Pierini nor Firmenich, both defendants in the lawsuit, immediately returned messages seeking comment.