Apple sued for not stopping sexual harassment on ‘Emancipation’ set

Apple is being sued by a woman who claims the tech giant failed to protect her from sexual harassment while she was employed in a COVD support role on the set of the Will Smith thriller “Emancipation,” reports Bloomberg.

Alicia Kelly also sued production companies Lionsgate Entertainment Inc. and Jerry Bruckheimer Inc., as well as her direct employers, claiming the companies fostered a workplace environment where sexual harassment, sexual intimidation and sexual battery were allowed against female workers.

In the lawsuit Kelly said she was hired in October 2020 as a testing coordinator on the production of the “Hightown” television series in North Carolina. She claims she was harassed by her boss on the set, and when he was transferred his successor also harassed her, including by touching her breasts and buttocks.

In addition to failing to protect her against harassment, she also sued Montrose Environmental Group Inc. for gender discrimination, saying she was consistently paid less than her male counterparts. and the Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health for wrongful dismissal.

About ‘Emancipation’

Apple acquired Emancipation for US$120 in a bidding war. Here’s how the movie is described: Will Smith plays Peter, a slave who fled a plantation in Louisiana after he was whipped within an inch of his life. He had to outwit cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on a torturous journey north. There, he joined the Union Army. The thriller is based on Peter’s true story and was inspired by the haunting photo of his bare back, scarred from the brutal whipping. The image, which came to be known as “The Scourged Back,” was published by The Independent in May 1863 and then in the Harper’s Weekly. It became indisputable proof of the barbarity of slavery in America, solidified the cause of abolitionists and prompted many free Blacks to join the Union Army.