By Mark I. Schickman
It sometimes can come as a shock that, no matter how smart or well-resourced they are, people cannot follow the rules for avoiding discrimination and harassment claims. We’re all human, but a little self-control would’ve gone a long way in these cases involving a TV executive and a Stanford Business School dean.
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As you will recall, Desperate Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan got into an argument on the set of the show with writer/creator Marc Cherry, which ended with Cherry slapping her. It was battery, according to Sheridan; stage direction, in Cherry’s view. Sheridan complained to the network and the producer, and the next year, her character, Edie Britt, was killed. She then filed a lawsuit claiming retaliation, which was twice dismissed by trial courts and, now, twice revived by the court of appeal.
Meanwhile, 500 miles north of Hollywood, the dean of Stanford Business School, Garth Saloner, recently resigned after becoming embroiled in a widening harassment scandal. In 2000, Stanford offered jobs to a husband-and-wife teaching team, James Phills and Deborah Gruenfeld, which included a favorable $1 million housing loan. In June 2012, two things happened: Gruenfeld moved out of the house she shared with Phills, and Saloner’s wife died of cancer. A short time later, Saloner and Gruenfeld started dating. You can guess that a course case ensued after this series of events.