Fame Monster Lady Gaga may not have to endure a trial facing her former friend and former assistant Jennifer O’Neill regarding the alleged “unpaid overtime” O’Neill is claiming for what she calculates is 7,168 hours of overtime, or $400,000 hours of damage. Though Gaga had formerly dismissed her ex-assistant’s demands, the two may come to an agreement out of court, or at least that’s what O’Neill’s lawyer is suggesting when he said to Manhattan federal Judge Paul Gardephe in a letter that both parties “have been engaged in significant settlement negations over the past two weeks.”
“We have utilized the services of an independent mediator,” he said, as reported by The New York Press, “who brought us to a place where we are in agreement on the most major terms related to a settlement. I am hopeful that the parties can reach a mutual agreement, thus obviating the need for a trial.”
This might be greatly to Gaga’s delight, for though obviously an attention lover, willing to strip naked on the drop of a hat, she still prefers to keep her personal life rather secret, and has long had anxieties that tidbits of her history might jeopardize her career.
O’Neill, meanwhile, complained that she was never off-duty when she was Gaga’s assistant. Even in the middle of the night she was expected to change the DVDs that Gaga was watching, and never felt she had a break.