Face front, True Believers! Today you're going to hear one of the most unbelievable, out of this world stories you'll ever hear - Stan 'The Man' Lee's former executive assistant is filing a lawsuit against him for abuse and wrongful firing!
In November last year, Lee hired Shawn Lukaszewicz to set up and assist in the management of Lee's ComiKaze convention booth, which landed Lukaszewicz his "dream job in the entertainment industry". However, this reportedly quickly turned into more of a nightmare, with Lukaszewicz claiming that Lee visited the booth and told him that he had done a "shitty job" and that the booth was "f**king embarrassing". However, the Lee's (that is, Stan and his wife Joan Lee, as well as their daughter Joan Celia Lee) hired him as an Executive Assistant nonetheless.
According to Lukaszewicz's claims, things only got worse. His job included launching & managing social media sites, and running personal errands for the Lee family, which he was offered $40 an hour for 40 hours a week. However, Lukaszewicz claims the Lee family demanded his services be available 24/7, and he was not paid overtime for these extra requests. He claims that he was often abused by the Lee family for simply following instructions issued to him by the family, with one example being when Joan Celia Lee requested Lukaszewicz drop off some documents to the Lee household, and upon arrival, [Stan] Lee answered over the intercom "get the f**k out and never ring my damn doorbell again". Yikes. Lukaszewicz also claims that around the Christmas holiday period, his pay was cut from $40 an hour to a mere $25, and whenever he complained about the cuts, he would be reminded that he was "lucky to work for the Lee family and he should be thankful".
One other example given was when Lukaszewicz was driving [Stan] Lee to a meeting with renowned boxer Manny Pacquiao in April. The complaint filed by Lukaszewicz says "Stan Lee became very abusive towards plaintiff for driving too slow as Mr Pacquiao was about to depart to Las Vegas for his May 1, 2015 fight with Floyd Meriwether [sic: recte Mayweather]". According to Lukaszewicz, upon Pacquiao's failure to arrive for the meeting, Lee called Lukaszewicz a "f**king idiot" before going on to say "you wasted my time. Now everyone at the office thinks you are a f**ing asshole".
Yet another worrying aspect of Lukaszewicz claims is the wrongful nature of the termination of his employment. Lukaszewicz claims that while he was driving Joan Celia Lee to San Franciso, she spent the trip smoking marijuana. When she told him upon arrival at the hotel to drive a around the block with the windows down to get rid of the smell, he complained that he was not being paid for his time, to which she replied "get out of my f**ing car. You are done. You are done". She then reportedly abandoned Lukaszewicz in San Franciso with no money, and he had to make his own way back to Los Angeles.
It was also in June that Lukaszewicz was diagnosed with both Psychiatric and internal injuries related to his employment, which led to the lawsuit. Lukaszewicz is seeking punitive damages on 9 counts, and the Lee's have retaliated, by embarking on a "further course of disparaging plaintiff and accused him of criminal conduct.
If what Lukaszewicz is claiming to be true ends up being accurate, the Lee family could find themselves in a lot of legal trouble. Of course, there have been countless attempts in the past to sue celebrities and former bosses for fraudulent offences, and this may turn out to be no different, but only time will tell. More on this story as it develops, but in the meantime, be sure to hit that thumbs up, share and leave a comment below!
- Gutspinner