LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gabrielle Union filed a complaint Thursday with the state of California against NBC and the producers of “America’s Got Talent,” the latest move in a fight over her allegations that she was fired for objecting to an on-set environment that tolerated racism.
“Union, a black woman, was singled out due to her physical appearance and discriminated against by NBC due to the fact that her hair did not fit within the white image that NBC apparently sought to convey to the audience of AGT,” the complaint states, adding that a network executive and a show producer “informed Union’s manager that her hair was ‘too wild’ and that it needed to be ‘toned down.
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The complaint also contains new allegations that NBC Entertainment Chairman Paul Telegdy called Union’s agents to issue unspecified threats, shared confidential information on the controversy with celebrities that the show was looking to hire and sought to undermine an investigation of Union’s issues.
“The allegation that anyone involved in this process threatened Ms. Union is categorically untrue,” the network’s parent company NBCUniversal said in a statement.
“When Gabrielle Union informed NBC of racially offensive conduct during the taping of America’s Got Talent, NBC did not ‘stand’ with her in ‘outrage at acts of racism,’” Freedman said in a statement.
