Maria Sharapova's Crotch A Key Element in Dentsu Lawsuit
Adverganza picks up on a story about a former Dentsu employee, Steve Biegel, who while employed as a creative director for the agency in its New York office claims he was sexually harassed and has sued the agency. The suit claims Biegel's boss, Toyo Shigeta who heads Dentu's US operations "forced him into visiting brothels, distributed lewd pictures of, among other females, tennis star Maria Sharapova (specifically of her crotch), which Shigeta took on a Canon shoot in October 2004 and also insisted that Biegel and others hang out nude in a hot tub with him."
Aside from the fact that sounds like every day, normal behavior for a horny Japanese dude (OK, any dude), excepting, perhaps, the hot tub thing, Biegel says the events left him humiliated and degraded. Biegel complained, got fired and unleashed the legal eagles on Dentsu.
For it's part, Dentsu is downplaying the claim and plans to counterclaim, telling Advertising Age, "Steve Biegel is a former employee who was terminated almost a year ago. When Dentsu refused to yield to Mr. Biegel's unreasonable demands, he made outrageous allegations which the company has refuted. He has now filed a claim to obtain money to which he is not entitled, for incidents he alleges took place over three years ago and which he never complained about while an employee of Dentsu. The company intends to counterclaim that Mr. Biegel has libeled Dentsu and defrauded the company. We look forward to the opportunity to vindicate our company in court."
As with other law suits like this, there's always two sides to the story but one does have to wonder why an individual would go to the trouble and the cost of pursuing a mega-corp with unlimited resources unless there is some merit to the claim. It seems entirely plausible these events occurred and, in an effort to fit in as we all sometimes do, Biegel kept his mouth shut for a while. Why he waited three years to act is unclear. What is clear is we've got another salacious legal battle to fawn over while gearing up for that weekly bore-fest, the traffic meeting.
Comments
No one is "forced" into visiting a brothel. (I once sat in the limo while my boss visited a strip club.) And unless Mr. Shigeta forced Beigel ino that hot tub naked, he should expect no cash.
"Answer the question, Mr. Biegel. Did Mr. Shigeta physically remove your clothing before you entered the hot tub naked?"
"...no."
"And did Mr. Shigeta ever at any time tell you your job was on the line if you did not enter the brothel?"
"...no."
"You, sir, are a castrated man unable to stand up for himself. I have no further questions, your honor."
i don't know if i believe this statement that you made at the end. "As with other law suits like this, there's always two sides to the story but one does have to wonder why an individual would go to the trouble and the cost of pursuing a mega-corp with unlimited resources unless there is some merit. to the claim. "
everything else you wrote about was funny and made sense. I'm not defending shigeta at all or what could have happened but just bc it was set up as david vs goliath doesn't mean that david could have been telling an exagerated truth to help his case. juicy stuff though for sure.
Is he suing for $63,000,000 Billion dollars?
Maybe if Steve wasn't such a typical asshole American he would have realized that the "hot tub" is actually an end-of-day bathing ritual that is used for relaxation and business networking among Japanese businessmen. What a tool.
Although I can totally see the Sharpapova thing being for real.
And you don't have the Sharapova shot yet? Come on, dammit!
Trust me, this is entirely crap.
Steve has a file here at Ogilvy a foot think--he single handedly keep many porn sites in business.
In short , he is a letch and was screwing 2 women that I know of at O&M in the late 90's--while married.
No one made him do anything. In fact, I heard he went back to the "brothel" the next nite.
If I can find them, I'll post the shots of Steve with the 2 porn stars on his lap from a shoot.
Steve should be the poster boy for frivolous law suits.
I found Maria Sharapova paparazzi nude video here: http://c-hunt.com/view.php?vid=Maria_Sharapova_nude
Steve...
Has anyone noticed Sharapova's ass is getting bigger. That's why when she plays, she wears those frilly flouncy skirts that she thinks is hiding the fact that she's packing the lard on the old gluteous maximus... Which is getting more maximus by the day... Still tasty though!
Cheers/George
Densu claimed today that Biegel's poor job performance was the reason for his dismissal....something about the Co." moving in a new direction." Well if anyone knows anything about Biegel's work...he is an award winning creative director who was awarded an EFFIE while employed at DENSU. Give us a break here people...these arrogant Japaneese execs. have been exposed! I respect Biegel for standing up against these idiots.
Shigeta is an ego maniac and a major PIG.
I have witnessed his ascent to power at Dentsu.
He rose from a shameless brown noser to the next Caesar.
He has no idea about this business and has never really embraced American culture even after years of living in the US.
His American wife must be feeling quite disgraced.
I know dozens of people who have been disgraced by Japanese ad freaks, bringing their old world Japanese traditions to the U.S. and imposing them on people just like Biegel. Maybe he is seeking monetary gains, but that does not excuse what Densu made him do and feel. IT'S TIME MORE PEOPLE STAND UP TO UN-AMEICANIZED CORPORATE BAFOONS.
Paul...
What's a BAFOON?
Cheers/George