Just weeks after landing - and scoring- a TV ratings coup with her Lance Armstrong interview, Oprah Winfrey's cable network is in a bind. The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is now facing a sexual discrimination lawsuit by a former employee who claims that she was laid off the network for becoming pregnant. According to the Hollywood Report, Carolyn Hommel's lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleges she was on track to become vice president before she got pregnant, and was soon fired.
In 2000, Hommel was hired in 2010 as senior director of scheduling and acquisition. In her absence, Hommel was replaced by a temporary employee while on maternity leave. When she returned to office, her duties were gradually given to her replacement. Hommel claims her demotion and subsequent layoff are a direct result of her becoming pregnant.
Hommel filed the lawsuit on Friday at Los Angeles Superior Court. She also claims that her boss, Michael Garner concocted a performance review, which "made Hommel's job duties and responsibilities appear less senior." She thus was not suitable for the vice president position. Hommel is also a defendant in the lawsuit, and seeking unspecified damages.
Winfrey, 58, is best known for her multi-award-winning talk show 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' which was the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. On January 1, 2011, she debuted the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a specialty channel produced by Harpo Productions and Discovery Communications. Winfrey is reportedly the richest self-made woman in America.
She, nor her representatives have yet to make a public statement concerning the lawsuit.
