Legendary Hollywood Producer ordered to pay $3M in harassment suit

AP – Sat, Aug 27, 2011

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles jury has ordered film producer Jon Peters to pay his former assistant more than $3 million after finding she was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.

The jury on Friday awarded Shelly Morita $822,000 in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages.

City News Service reports that Peters' attorneys plan to appeal the verdict.

Morita sued Peters five years ago, alleging he fondled her at his Malibu home and climbed into bed with her in an Australian hotel during the 2005 filming of "Superman Returns." She claimed that she couldn't find work in Hollywood after suing Peters because of his pull in the industry.

Peters [June 2, 1945 (age 66)] produced several acclaimed films, including "A Star Is Born," ''Flashdance," ''The Color Purple," ''Batman" and "Rain Man."

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Jon Peters, Wikipedia

n November 2008, Peters was sued for sexual harassment by his Superman: Man of Steel co-producer Brian Quintana.

In December 2008, Peters sued his past President and General Counsel, Ronald Wayne Grigg. Peters accused Grigg of a campaign of deceit that included hiring an assistant with the company's money, stealing his computers, and drugging and raping two women on Peters' property.

Selected filmography as producer and executive producer

• A Star Is Born (1976)
• Caddyshack (1980)
• An American Werewolf in London (1981)
• Flashdance (1983)
• The Color Purple (1985)
• Clue (1985)
• Rain Man (1988)
• Tango & Cash (1989)
• Batman (1989)
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
• Batman Returns (1992)
• Money Train (1995)
• My Fellow Americans (1996)
• Wild Wild West (1999)
• Superman Returns (2006)

Shampoo (film)

Shampoo is a 1975 satirical film written by Robert Towne and directed by Hal Ashby. It stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill and in an early film appearance, Carrie Fisher.

The lead character, George Roundy, is reportedly based on several actual hairdressers, including Jay Sebring and film producer Jon Peters, who is a former hairdresser. Jay Sebring was brutally murdered by the Charles Manson family in 1969.

The film is set in 1968, the day Richard Nixon was first elected to the White House, and was released soon after the Watergate scandal had reached its messy conclusion. The political atmosphere provides a source of dramatic irony, since the audience, but not the characters, are aware of the direction the Nixon presidency would eventually take. However, the main theme of the film is not presidential politics but sexual politics; it is renowned for its sharp satire of late-1960s sexual and social mores.