Kathy Griffin To Donate $50K Of Potential Lawsuit Winnings To Time’s Up Organization, Only Keep $1 For Herself
Comedienne Kathy Griffin has been engaged in a tense legal battle with her neighbor for over a year and, according to The Blast, will be making a huge statement with her potential winnings from the lawsuit, vowing to donate any money awarded in her favor to a worthy cause while she only keeps one dollar.
According to legal documents obtained by the news outlet, the 58-year-old comedienne has filed a counter suit this month against her neighbor Jeffrey Mezger, the CEO of KB Homes, for intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is seeking a total of $50,001 in “compensatory damages.”
And while the amount may seem like an odd number, Griffin chose it because she wants it to be clear that the legal battle is not simply her looking for an easy payday from a wealthy executive. In fact, she has vowed to donate $50,000 of her potential winnings to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund while keeping the remaining one dollar for herself.
Griffin’s decision is in similar fashion to a 2017 sexual lawsuit filed last year by pop star Taylor Swift, whom NPR reported sought — and was granted — only a “single dollar in damages,” rather wanting the trial to serve as an “example to other women.”
EXCLUSIVE: @KathyGriffin promises she will only take $1 and donate the rest of the $50,001 she is suing for to the #TimesUp Legal Defense Fund if she wins her lawsuit. https://t.co/qtyT9CdFOu
— The Blast (@TheBlastNews) December 28, 2018
The conflict between Griffin and Mezger has been fuming since September of 2017, when The Blast previously reported the comedienne and her former boyfriend Randy Bick both filed restraining orders against her neighbor after an incident between the two parties that started when Griffin called the police to report a noise disturbance from Mezger’s home.
This seemed to fuel the incident, which was followed up by the CEO screaming profanities at Griffin and Bick. The couple recorded the verbal altercation, which Huffington Post later obtained and published. In the audio, Mezger can be heard screaming sexist and homophobic slurs and profanities at the comedienne, including calling her a “bald d***,” a “c***,” and “a f****** a******.”
Comedian Kathy Griffin was verbally assaulted by neighbor Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of KB Homes https://t.co/qKnNxC5NKO pic.twitter.com/HcXBjdJRvk
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) September 19, 2017
Griffin has also claimed in court filings that Mezger and his wife have dumped garbage on her property and claimed that Mezger himself had bribed the Homeowner’s Association to ignore any complaints from Kathy.
In response to the 2017 incident, KB Homes docked his bonus in 2017 by 25 percent, but did not fire the CEO. Mezger and his wife Sandra also filed restraining orders against their neighbors, but all requests for them by both parties were thrown out.
The battle did not stop there, however, as The Blast reported in July of this year that Mezger had taken legal action against Kathy and Randy for invasion of privacy for “illegally capturing hundreds of hours of audio and video from the Mezgers’ backyard.”
The most recent move in the bitter feud is Griffin’s counter-suit asking for the $50,001, almost all of it she has vowed to donate.
