Posted on 10/20/2004 1:20:51 AM PDT by kattracks
Bill O'Reilly accuser turned down $2million to make her sexual harassment complaint disappear, sources told the Daily News.Lawyers for Fox News had proposed the $2 million settlement to Andrea Mackris and her lawyer Benedict Morelli, sources at Fox told The News.
The negotiations took place days before Mackris filed her suit.
But Mackris and Morelli thumbed their noses at the money, the sources said, and suggested that $60 million was a more appropriate starting point.
"When Benedict Morelli demanded $60million, that was the end of any discussion, period and absolutely," said a Fox spokesman.
Morelli said he had two weeks of discussions with Fox's legal team before the lawsuit was filed.
"There were numbers that we talked about, but $2 million was never an offer," Morelli said.
He has always said that he considered the talks confidential - but he contends that the $60 million represents how much O'Reilly is worth to Fox, and not how much he was seeking.
O'Reilly's lawyer Ronald Green said there was never a firm $2 million offer.
"We have no information at all on that," he said.
Mackris, 33, an associate producer for "The O'Reilly Factor," alleges her boss started to sexually harass her in 2002.
She said the harassment escalated after she returned to Fox this year following a stint working for CNN and it involved inappropriate comments, including descriptions of O'Reilly's sexual fantasies about her.
O'Reilly also filed a lawsuit, saying Mackris and Morelli aimed to extort $60million from him and Fox in return for her dropping the complaint. His legal team also claimed Mackris had written a tell-all book that aimed to destroy O'Reilly and Fox.
But according to a journalist who has seen Mackris' manuscript, the unpublished work makes no reference to O'Reilly or Fox.
"It's a fictional story, similar to 'Bridget Jones's Diary,' about a young woman who just split up with her boyfriend and who is making her way in the city," said "Court TV" anchor Lisa Bloom, who said a "source close to the accuser" gave her a copy.
"There is no mention of Fox or O'Reilly, and no suggestion of a story line involving sexual harassment. I'm told this is the only book Andrea has written."
"Court TV" also obtained updates to Mackris' lawsuit in which she accuses Fox's owner News Corp. of retaliation for a story published in the New York Post.
The newspaper, also owned by News Corp., reported Mackris "went nuts" during an altercation with other customers in a New York hotel bar.
But it conceded the bar's management evicted the other patrons and gave Mackris a gift to make amends.
Originally published on October 20, 2004
If she shopped something explosive on Fox, it would likely be selectively and very quietly.
I have been disappointed in O'Reilly lately but not enough to listen to Frank Rich trash him.
If she's been offerered $2M, her claim of "retaliation" will ring quite hollow. I suspect that's why they offered it.
O'Reilley is TOAST! History, past tense, outa here!
I won't miss the faker.
>Allowing the Homosexual Mafia and the MSM to win this battle
>will give the leftists the courage to continue their
>attacks...
O'Reilly is beholden to the homosexual mafia in a way a true conservative would never be. The guy has taken a hard turn to the left since he became popular and frankly I don't know whether or not the conservative movement is better off with him or without him.
Poison in our own pool really bothers me. I won't miss the guy; I almost hope the charges stick.
And this should serve as a warning to other conservatives: keep your pants zipped. It's not at all beyond the left to use young attractive liberal women as agents to bring down guys much as the KGB used to do.
I agree. I am gonna wait to see if there are tapes before I decide one way or the other.
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