Paramount Pictures has been sued by two former employees, who allege the studio turned a blind eye to sexual harassment and assault by their supervisor.
One of the accusers, in a Jane Doe lawsuit filed on July 14 in California state court, claims she was sexually assaulted multiple times from 2016 to 2018 at the studio lot and offices. The other, also brought by a woman identified as Jane Doe, alleges she was subjected to a hostile work environment in which her supervisor bombarded her with sexual comments and advances.
At the center of the litigation: Patrick Smith, senior vice president of worldwide print production, who resigned earlier this year following an investigation into his alleged misconduct, says Chip Matthews, a lawyer for the women. The women bring claims for sexual assault and harassment, discrimination, negligence and retaliation, among several others. Paramount did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Paramount fostered a “code of silence by allowing sexual misconduct, assault and harassment to exist in the workplace” and “punished those that dared to speak up,” claims Matthews.
The accusers, who at one point both worked for an ad agency with close ties to Paramount Pictures, worked at the Paramount offices under Smith’s direct management.
In an alleged 2016 incident, Smith entered the accuser’s office, closed the door, and began caressing her shoulders before proceeding to grope her breasts, according to the complaint. In another alleged assault later that year, she claims he locked her in his car and “shoved his hand between her legs and digitally penetrated her vagina” without consent, says the lawsuit, which notes that she was subsequently hired as a manager at Paramount.
The accuser alleges that Smith continued to assault and harass her, often at the Paramount offices during work hours, until she left the company in 2022. During lunch, Smith took her to secluded areas of the studio grounds, where he would direct her to perform sex acts, the lawsuit claims. This culminated in an alleged assault in 2018 in which he “forcefully anally penetrated” her, according to the complaint.
Around that time, she was interviewed by human resources about Smith’s behavior in response to another company employee who had brought a complaint against him. He later told the Jane Doe that human resources contacted him to ask whether he wanted them to “take care of it,” which the lawsuit alleges was a thinly-veiled suggestion that the reporting employee would be terminated.
The other accuser, in a lawsuit filed on July 9, says she worked at Paramount from 2017 to 2019 before being directed to work directly for the same ad agency as the other Jane Doe. While there, she continued to work at the Paramount offices under Smith, who she alleges regularly engaged in “predatory behavior.”
According to the complaint, Smith repeatedly referenced sexual acts and made advances toward her, including one instance in which he demanded that she join him at a conference in Nevada and suggested that they would have sex there.
After his advances were rebuffed, Smith allegedly retaliated by orchestrating a significant demotion of the account handled by the accuser’s ad agency despite the company being one of the most competitive vendors due to its pricing.
The lawsuit claims Paramount ignored several complaints of sexual misconduct by Smith, who has allegedly been terminated from other executive-level positions at other entertainment companies due to prior incidents of sexual harassment and lorded promises of promotions over employees.
The alleged harassment also wasn’t targeted solely at the accuser, according to the complaint. “Smith repeatedly made inappropriate and unwarranted remarks about female colleagues, openly displaying a disregard for professionalism and respect,” writes Byron Purcell, a lawyer for the woman, in the lawsuit. On one occasion, he said of another employee, “She’s older, so there’s probably something going on with her hormones. She’s acting crazy.”