The first female head of the National Academy of Recording Arts, who was placed on leave last week -- just 10 days before the Grammy Awards -- discussed the sexual harassment and gender discrimination complaint that she filed on Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In it she alleges that the Grammys' voting process is "illustrative of the boys' club mentality that exists at the Academy and amongst its Board members."
"When I came in as the first CEO of the Recording Academy in 62 years, female, there are definitely amazing people that work in the Recording Academy and also on the board, but at the very onset, in fact under the guise of a work dinner, I was propositioned by the general counsel with enormous power in the entertainment industry," Dugan claimed on "GMA" in response to women on the executive committee of the Record Academy releasing a statement defending the organization and denying her description of it.
"Starting with calling me 'babe' and saying how attractive I was and 'pretty' I was ... the evening went on to [him] trying to kiss me. All the way through I felt that I was being tested and how much would I acquiesce. I realized that was a power setting move just on the onset," she claimed, referring to her allegations against Joel Katz, general counsel for the Academy, who she says sexually harassed her.
She described her allegation in an email to human resources on Dec. 22, 2019. He has denied the allegations.
Former President of the Recording Academy Deborah Dugan claims she uncovered the fact that #GRAMMYs nominees tend to be influenced by business relations.— The Pop Hub (@ThePopHub) January 21, 2020
She also specifically mentions that a 2019 nominee in the "Song of the Year" category ranked 18/20 during final-round voting. pic.twitter.com/68BvX20mVG
"The Grammys really is on life support right now," Dugan's attorney, Douglas Wigdor, shared. "The statements they're giving about Ms. Dugan creating a toxic work environment, getting the executive board members to make statements -- they are in panic mode right now."
"The fact of the matter is this, Deborah, right here, she worked for eight years as an executive at EMI," he continued. "She worked for eight years as a president at Disney. She worked for eight years for Bono at Red raising hundreds of millions of dollars to eradicate AIDS. She never once filed an HR complaint and there was never once a complaint an HR complaint filed against her."
The Recording Academy has questioned the the timing of Dugan going public with her accusations about the organization, saying that she came forward them after being accused of misconduct herself, but Dugan reiterated her claim that she has addressed her concerns with the Academy before.
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