Happy Thursday!
I hope you are well. I have a new piece out in GQ that’s kind of a freaky one, so here’s my obligatory plug. I chatted with Palantir head of strategic engagement Eliano A. Younes about the war-driven AI and data company’s merch. You can check that out here.
Now, onto the matter at hand. There was some pretty big news about MrBeast that came out yesterday, yet I saw very little chatter about it online. I have had the feeling over the past two years—since he was initially criticized for his management of the first season of Beast Games—that people don’t really react to exploitative or concerning working conditions that exist in these creators’ companies.
I felt even more affirmed in this belief after Bloomberg published its report about internal strife and verbally abusive behavior within the Unwell Network, Alex Cooper’s media company. The article alleges that Cooper’s husband and business partner Matt Kaplan often berates employees, contributing to high turnover. This surely supports the idea that Alix Earle had a negative experience at Unwell, but I saw few people reference this piece as the Alex Cooper vs. Alix Earle drama continued. Now that Earle has seemingly bowed out of the beef, this report appears to have been overlooked.
Or is it that audiences care less because it doesn’t involve two of the biggest digital media personalities online? Emphasis on personality, because I think this point affects the way people receive problematic news coming out of the MrBeast camp. More on this below. Subscribe to the Yapper tier for the full newsletter.
Jimmy Donaldson, the YouTuber better known as MrBeast, has seemingly always been flippant about workplace safety, although he has dismissed this notion.
Now, his company has been hit with a new lawsuit from Lorrayne Mavromatis, a former employee who alleged that she experienced sexual harassment and discrimination at MrBeast, which her complaint describes as a “boys’ world.”
Some key points from the lawsuit:
Mavromatis references the standards laid out in the infamous How to Succeed in MrBeast Production handbook, specifically the following excepts: “It’s okay for the boys to be childish”; “If talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them”; “Do everything you can to empower the boys when filming”; “No Does Not Mean No”; and ‘The Amount of hours you work is irrelevant.’”
Mavromatis alleged sexual harassment from former CEO James Warren, who is Jimmy’s cousin (many of the top dogs at MrBeast are his family members).
She alleged he had made her “meet him in his home for one-on-one meetings while commenting on the way she looked in her clothes” and he “dismissed her complaint about a male client’s unwelcome advances toward her as nothing (telling her that she should be honored that the client was hitting on her).” Warren also allegedly told her that Jimmy couldn’t work with her because “she is a beautiful woman and her appearance had a certain sexual effect on Jimmy.”
Mavromatis described a sort of hazing ritual where she was told she could only work on a video with Jimmy if she brought him a beer. She ran around looking for a beer only to discover that he doesn’t drink.
Mavromatis also said male colleagues would tell her to “shut up” and kick her out of otherwise all-male meetings. She alleged they made fun of female Beast Games contestants that complained about the lack of feminine hygiene products on set.
Mavromatis said she was forced to work on maternity leave, violating her rights under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Mavromatis said she was fired three weeks after returning from maternity leave after having been demoted to a role where colleagues joked “careers go to die.” She had previously been Head of Creative, but alleged she was later moved down after filing complaints with the Head of Human Resources Sue Parisher (also Jimmy’s mother), who said her claims were “unsubstantiated.”
Gaude Paez, a representative for the company, told the New York Times in an email that the complaint was “built on deliberate misinterpretations and categorically false statements.”
Upgrade your subscription to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Yap Year to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. You can start a 14-day free trial at the link below.
UpgradeA subscription gets you:
- Full access to the archive and the Thursday newsletter
- Commenting privileges