Arianne Zucker.Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images
Arianne Zuckerhas suedDay of Our Lives' production company Corday Productions and co-executive producers Ken Corday andAlbert Alarrfor alleged discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
Per the complaint, Zucker claimed that Alarr would routinely pull her tight to his chest while making sexual moans and “forcefully” touch her during dry blocking of scenes without her consent.
“Alarr would put his hands on [Zucker’s] waist, with his thumbs placed just above her vagina, and move her around, all the while smirking and grinning in a sexual manner, making [Zucker] extremely uncomfortable and violated,” the complaint states.
The complaint also alleged that the exec enjoyed filming aggressive sex scenes and threesomes. While directing Zucker in an intimate scene onDOOL, she claimed that he once said, “Believe me, I’d love to switch positions with you."
Additionally, Zucker’s complaint states that Alarr and Corday frequently “berated” female employees in comparison to their male counterparts and they often “felt abused, and that the workplace was toxic.”
Arianne Zucker.Courtesy: Getty Images/Mike Moore
In a statement to PEOPLE, Alarr’s attorney Robert M. Barta denied Zucker’s claims and said they plan to fight her allegations.
“As Albert said when Ms. Zucker first leveled these outrageous claims through the press last year, her baseless allegations were examined in a detailed and entirely independent investigation that lasted for two months. Dozens of individuals cooperated and every claim was thoroughly looked into. At the end of that process, the decision was made that Albert should continue in his role as Co-Executive Producer ofDays of Our Lives,“Barta said, in part.“Enough is enough. Every day for decades, Albert worked with hundreds of people who can - and will - testify about the falsity of Ms. Zucker’s mischaracterizations of him. We relish having a chance to share the truth and putting an end to her offensive claims once and for all.”
According to the complaint, Zucker eventually took up matters with Corday, who is the head of Corday Productions, and shared her complaints in March 2023. She was then redirected to Sony’s Human Resource Department along with other women who had spoken up about their own experiences.
Sony launched an investigation with 30 witnesses who also shared complaints or provided corroboration of Alarr’s alleged actions. Shortly after, Zucker alleges that her pay was cut and travel budget was discontinued as a form of retaliation for coming forward during the investigation. In June, she was eventually written off the show and her future onDays of Our Livesbecame unknown.
When the investigation made headlines the following month, the complaint claims that Alarr was fired only after the news was made public to “save face” because Corday and his production company had been “ratifying and condoning his misconduct for 20 years.”
Albert Alarr.Vivien Killilea/Getty
Vivien Killilea/Getty
In October 2023, Zucker claimed her agent began contract negotiations on her behalf since her contract was set to expire in January. However, when her agent attempted to negotiate the company’s initial offer, she was allegedly given a “take it or leave it” offer, despite appearing on the show for 25 years, per the complaint.
Zucker claimed Corday Productions failed to negotiate in “good faith” and dismissed her agent’s repeated attempts to try again. When her contract finally expired, Zucker was fired from the show. She is now seeking unspecified damages and “continues to experience extreme emotional distress.”
“Ms. Zucker did what we tell all women who experience harassment to do, and that is to report it. Ms. Zucker did just that and was the voice for other women who were too scared to come forward,” Zucker’s lawyer Anahita Sedaghatfar tells PEOPLE in a statement. “Rather than condone her bravery, Ms. Zucker alleges that Corday retaliated against her and because she spoke out she has lost a job she was devoted to for two decades. As part of this lawsuit we will seek to ensure that Corday provides sexual harassment training to its employees and hires an intimacy coordinator to be on set for sex scenes.”
TMZwas first to report the news of Zucker’s lawsuit.
In July,Deadlinebroke the news that Alarr was the subject of a nine-week investigation for alleged bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment. The longstanding soap opera then named Janet Drucker as Alarr’s successor after he wasfired due to misconduct allegationsin August.
In response to the news of his departure from the show, Alarr issued a statement to PEOPLE saying, in part: “It is hard to overstate how heartbreaking I find this situation.”
“It is important to set the record straight. Every day, I worked with hundreds of people, the overwhelming majority of whom would disagree with recent mischaracterizations of me,” he continued. “I have been in this industry for decades, and not a single complaint has ever been made against me until now.”
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He also added that “many of the claims recently referenced in the media are simply false,” and said that “others have been taken so out of context or are so twisted that they are unrecognizable from the truth.”
source: people.com
