Rita Ragone, a former hair stylist for the ESPN show Cold Pizza, has filed a sexual harassment suit against show hosts Jay Crawford and Woody Paige, ESPN, and Atlantic Video.The suit says that Crawford and Paige often said rude things to Ragone, cornered her, and that Paige once grabbed her rear so hard she jumped. She also says that ESPN executives told her not to make any trouble because the on-air talent was "untouchable." Crawford, Paige, and ESPN all deny the allegations.
Cold Pizza is no longer on the air, though Crawford still hosts another morning show on the network.
This isn't the first time that an ESPN on-air personality has been accused of this type of behavior. Baseball analyst Harold Reynolds was fired from the network for sexual harassment last year. Reynolds denies that anything like that happened. He now works for MLB.com.
[via TV Tattle]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-03-2007 @ 10:34AM
Jim said...
Jay Crawford is untouchable? I've never even heard of the guy.
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7-03-2007 @ 11:11AM
Jason said...
I don't buy the "untouchable" part because ESPN fired Harold Reynolds (Baseball Tonight) for sexual harassment last year.
And he was more of an ESPN employee than Paige is (who still works for the Denver Post and is on Around The Horn) and certainly was more "untouchable" than Jay Crawford is.
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7-03-2007 @ 3:52PM
Justin said...
First Take just evolved from Cold Pizza--it's essentially the same show with a new name and based at ESPN Studios in Bristol instead of Times Square in NYC.
Yeah, this seems fishy just by the wording. I don't think that ESPN employees are all upstanding citizens but the Reynolds case had a lot of evidence and witnesses right away where this would be a higher profiled event if there was any substance to it.
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7-03-2007 @ 7:38PM
pete said...
back in my day a harmless slap on a nice room ass was for a job well done. you got to keep these dames motivated and dagnamit you show me a better way.
you cant you see!
Reply
7-03-2007 @ 7:39PM
pete said...
*round ass* not room ass, sorry
Reply