New York Post
June 1992
More than a few stars have used the casting couch as a trampoline to Hollywood fame. But now a couple of lawyers are making a speciality out of smashing the sturdiest piece of studio furniture.
In a town that runs on sex, a lot of movie and music execs have been paying close attention to Penny Muck and Wayne Mogilefsky.
Muck is a 28-year-old secretary who's alleged in court that, when she worked at Geffen Records, her boss, Marko Babineau, masturbated in front of her, fondled her breasts and buttocks, and , once, stuck his erect penis in her ear. Babineau denies the charges.
Mogilefsky is a 23-year-old screenwriter who alleges that, when he worked as a story editor at Silver Pictures, his boss, Michael Levy, made him watch porn videos, asked how much he'd charge for sex, and implied to another employee that they'd engaged in anal intercourse. Levy denies the charges.
Muck and Mogilefsky are both clients of Schonbrun & DeSimone. The small L.A. firm started out handling police brutality and tenants' rights cases. Now it's carving out what promises to be the lucrative niche of representing those who say they've been groped and/or leered at while toiling in Tinseltown.
"Hollywood reflects the values of the society around it," James DeSimone tells PAGE SIX's George Rush. "Society has evolved to the point where people realize casting-couch behavior is wrong. Hollywood better catch up. You have men here who believe they are untouchable."
Of course, DeSimone points out, those men have hired "big guns."
Defending Levy is Howard Weitzman, the attorney who got John DeLorean off a cocaine rap. Representing the corporations that employed both Levy and Babineau is Bertram, Fields, whose clients include Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty and Michael Jackson.
Fields says he believes sex-harassment cases are on the rise in Hollywood - "absolutely" - and that, in most cases, they're propelled by a yearning, not for justice, but for money.
He says that as compensation for Levy's alleged remarks, Mogilefsky's lawyers asked for $2 million. "That tells you what's going on here," says Fields.
He suggests that Penny Muck has only herself to blame. "Perhaps Miss Muck should not have told her superior he shouldn't tell anyone [about Babineau's alleged behavior]," argues Fields. "When management investigated her complaint Babineau was out immediately."
DeSimone contends that "executives at Geffen were willing to turn a blind eye to Babineau because he was such a moneymaker."
Babineau has since started his own company and he reportedly still promotes Geffen records. Levy, 33, who earns about $800,000 a year, still works for Joel Silver.
As for DeSimone, having proclaimed Muck's case on the courthouse steps, he's been getting a wealth of calls from others alleging harassment. "I feel fortunate," he says. "The only way to accomplish change is to make the perpetrators pay for their deeds."
