Andrea Mackris
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Categories: 1971 births | Greek-Americans | Living people | People from St. Louis, Missouri | American television producers | Columbia University alumni | Sex scandals
Andrea May Mackris is a former Fox News television producer in the United States who accused cable talk show host Bill O'Reilly of sexual harassment. She alleged both of the legally cognizable types of sexual harassment, quid pro quo and hostile work environment.
Mackris was born in 1971 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was a White House intern in the summer of 1991 for George H. W. Bush. She later earned a masters in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. [1] Over the next decade, she worked as a television producer in New York City at NBC News, CNN and Fox News Channel.
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The lawsuit
On October 13, 2004, Bill O'Reilly sued Mackris for extortion. Hours later, Mackris countersued for sexual harassment against O'Reilly and Fox News in the New York Supreme Court (in New York the Supreme Court is a trial court) for 60 million dollars in damages, the value of O'Reilly's name brand to the corporation per year, according to public sources at the time. The entire public proceeding lasted a mere 16 days before it ended in a settlement for Mackris.
The allegations
In her complaint, Mackris produced quotations from phone conversations between herself and O’Reilly in which he suggested various sexual fantasies he had for her. A widely publicized portion of one conversation included a scenario where O'Reilly would massage her with a loofah in the shower. At one point during the conversation, O'Reilly referred to the loofah as "the falafel." "Falafel" eventually became a short-hand reference to the affair.
The complaint detailed a number of other sexual conversations and encounters from O'Reilly toward Mackris, [2] [3] as well as O'Reilly stating that radio talk show host Al Franken would "get what was coming to him," [4] and that any woman who crossed him or Fox would be destroyed.
The response
On October 15, 2004, Fox sought judicial permission to fire Mackris, and sought to convince the court that the seeking the firing was not illegal retribution for the sexual harassment lawsuit. Mackris was never fired. On October 19, 2004, Mackris filed an amended complaint, adding further details to her complaints of a sexual harassment atmosphere in the workplace, and noted that O'Reilly had not denied her claims of sexual harassment. Further damages for illegal retaliatory actions were then taken by her against O'Reilly, Fox News, and the News Corporation-owned newspaper, The New York Post.
On October 21, 2004, both sides agreed to a one-week postponement of legal proceedings, leading to speculation that settlement negotiations would resume. Press reports had said there had been prior discussions of a potential settlement of about US$2 million, but no formal offer had been made.
The settlement
On October 28, 2004, O'Reilly and Mackris reached an out-of-court settlement and dropped all charges against each other. No announcements were made about the amount of the settlement.
According to several published reports, as part of the settlement, O'Reilly paid Mackris millions of dollars, but the terms of the agreement are confidential. [5] Mackris's complaint had also sought additional damages and described alleged actions of retaliation by Fox, et al.
References
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