HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — George Clooney is coming to the defense of his friend Rande Gerber after the nightclub mogul was recently slapped with claims of sexual harassment.
In March, a pair of former waitresses filed a lawsuit against Gerber’s company, claiming they were fired for refusing to give in to sexual advances made by Gerber and some of the managers they worked for at the Moonstone Lounge located at San Diego’s Hard Rock Hotel.
In the suit, waitress Shelly Scott claims she was forced to quit in December over an incident that took place a few months earlier. She alleges that Gerber tried to kiss her three times one night and also attempted to fondle her underneath her dress. Clooney said he was with Gerber on the night in question and he vehemently denied the claims brought against his pal.
“I was with Rande the entire night — as were a lot of people — they will all say the same thing that I’m saying. This event never happened. Period,” Clooney said in a statement Monday to Access Hollywood.
The Gerber Group, founded by nightclub impresario Gerber, also issued a statement Monday to Access over the alleged incident.
“It has been reported that a former waitress has alleged in a lawsuit that on a single occasion in September 2008, Rande Gerber attempted to kiss and fondle her. This allegation is a blatant lie that will be proven false,” read the statement. “Multiple witnesses, including George Clooney, the bar managers, waitresses and others, will testify that they were with Mr. Gerber for the short time period in question and that Mr. Gerber never kissed or touched any waitress.”
“Mr. Gerber and Mr. Clooney are willing to take lie detector tests to prove that the allegations against Mr. Gerber are false,” continued the statement. “Mr. Gerber will not settle this extortion case even for a single dollar and will take all actions necessary to clear his name, including filing a $10 million lawsuit for malicious prosecution once these allegations are proven false.”
Earlier this year, Tarsadia Hotels, the owner of the San Diego Hard Rock, abruptly shut down Gerber’s clubs — Moonstone Lounge and Sweetwater Saloon — over allegations of repeated abuse and violent conduct on the part of the clubs’ staffs. Gerber, the husband of supermodel Cindy Crawford, called the maneuver “illegal and unethical,” saying the closure came after several attempts by Tarsadia to double the agreed-upon rent almost from the day the two clubs first opened in December 2007.
“They said, ‘Pay double the rent or we will find a way of getting rid of you,’ ” Gerber previously told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We did not agree to the terms of the proposed rent increase.
“We thought the issue went away, and the past year we’ve been operating our business as usual. All of a sudden there is a call at 5 a.m. that they are locking the doors.”
The two sides are currently battling it out in an Orange County court.
