So, a woman is suing a man for $2 million for alleged unpaid work. Here's what makes it interesting: The woman is the man's former mistress.
"She wants to be paid for what she calls (giggles) unpaid services," said a WFLX anchor.
"She is 67, and he's 88. And she thinks she rightly owns the dough," added a Fox Business host.
That laughter just about sums up the media reaction to 67-year-old Theodora Lee Corsell's Manhattan lawsuit against 88-year-old former news executive James Greenwald. And sure, as the mistress, Corsell might not be the most sympathetic character, but before you laugh, she isn't making her case as a former lover. Instead, she characterizes her six-year relationship with Greenwald as having a "professional services" component.
According to court documents, Corsell calls those professional services "separate and apart from ... the parties' romantic relationship." She says Greenwald once told her, "I owe you everything and I will compensate you."
Those services, New York Post reports, include things like marketing Greenwald's memoir, which never got published, and working to — get this — allegedly help him hide another, separate affair.
Worth noting Greewald's attorney is calling Corsell's suit "a shameless shakedown," according to the Post, but a trial attorney told Fox News there are ways she could have a case.
"She could be seen as a personal assistant. We don't know the inside relationship that they had here. ... He isn't required to get a divorce. But certainly is required to pay for services," attorney Lisa Giovinazzo said.
All that would depend at least in part on what Corsell was able to get in writing: legally murky stuff that likely will hinge on whether Corsell can prove there was any sort of employment contract. Greenwald, by the way, is still married.
