E! Producer Claims She Was Fired Over Airing Celebrity Criticism

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E! Producer Is Claiming She Was Unfairly Terminated

People began to side-eye a popular network when former E! News host Catt Sadler made the decision to leave after finding out that her salary was half that of her male counterparts. Her courageous decision was announced in early February, which came only a few days before the Golden Globe ceremony–which is where celebrities were particularly fired up to speak out against the systemic sexism of Hollywood.

Now, another woman is claiming she was wrongfully terminated by the network. The producer, Aileen Gram-Moreno, told the New York Times that she was fired from E! for allowing Eva Longoria to criticize the network and support Catt Sadler. She filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday. She claims she was unfairly terminated and replaced by a man.

Gram-Moreno elaborated, “They said, if there’s any mention of Catt in the pre-show, make sure you flag it. You’re censoring celebrities; it’s just not a good idea in my humble opinion. But it wasn’t my decision.”

However, the producer claims there were just too many prerecorded interviews to thoroughly review them all, and she was unable to listen to Longoria’s interview all the way through. So when she says towards the end, “We stand with you, Catt,” Gram-Moreno was “devastated about the mistake,” and apologized to her executive producer via text, who said it was probably unavoidable. Five days later, however, Gram-Moreno said she was fired from all upcoming shows she had already been booked for, including the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Grammys, and the Oscars.

E! spokeswoman, Sarah Goldstein insists that Gram-Moreno is just a freelancer who averages 20 days a year, and she was let go only due to performance issues.