Gloria Allred, Lawyer, Biography
Gloria Rachel Allred (born Gloria Rachel Bloom on July 3, 1941) is an American lawyer and radio talk show host. She is also the mother of Court TV hostess Lisa Bloom.
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Early life
Allred was born in Philadelphia, on July 3, 1941. After high school, she attended the University of Pennsylvania. There she met her first husband and got married. At age 19, she gave birth to a baby which she named Lisa. Soon after Lisa's birth, Allred and her husband divorced. Unable to collect child support from her former husband, she was forced to return to her parents' home.
A newly single mother, Allred moved back in with her parents and continued her studies in school, graduating with honors with a bachelor's degree in English in 1963. She tried her hand at a variety of jobs before she decided to become a teacher. After taking a position at Benjamin Franklin High School, she began working on her master's degree at New York University. While there, she became interested in the civil rights movement, which was beginning to gain momentum. After earning her master's degree in 1966, she returned to Philadelphia to teach at a high school with a predominantly African-American enrollment.citation needed
Allred moved to Los Angeles and married her second husband, Raymond Allred, in 1968. They were divorced in 1987.citation needed Allred attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California and was admitted to the California State Bar in 1975.[1]
Career
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She represented Amber Frey when Frey was a witness in the criminal case against Scott Peterson. She has also represented cases against the Boy Scouts of America for not allowing girls, something she referred to as gender apartheid, a case against the former Sav-On Drugstore chain for having both a boys and a girls toy section, as well as representing actress Hunter Tylo when producer Aaron Spelling fired her because of her pregnancy.[2]
Early in her career in Los Angeles, Allred made a name for herself by successfully suing the then all-male Friars Club in Beverly Hills, an exclusive private club, over its membership discrimination policies.citation needed The lawsuit was brought by a professional woman in the late 1970s who was spurned by the club when her application was rejected based solely on her sex, which the club denied, but Allred proved in court.
She formerly co-hosted a radio talkshow with Mark Taylor on KABC in Los Angeles. She also served as a panelist on the 1990 revival of television game show To Tell the Truth.citation needed
She represented Paula Jones, in the sexual harassment case against former U.S. president Bill Clinton, as well as Nicole Brown Simpson's family during the O. J. Simpson murder case. She also represented photographer Henry Trappler, against Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee. Allred is also known for her criticism of pop singer Michael Jackson. After watching media coverage of the Berlin event with Michael Jackson, she wrote a letter to California's Child Protective Services, asking for an investigation into the safety of Jackson's children. She also spoke on CNN about the subject. Child Protective Services does not make their investigations public, so it is not known whether any action was taken as a result of Allred's letter. When a reporter asked Jackson what he thought of Allred's complaints, he remarked "Ah, tell her to go to hell."[3]
She was the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences' Distinguished Speaker at its 2006 graduation.citation needed
On July 19, 2007 she filed a lawsuit in Superior Court on behalf of Elizabeth Mazzocchi against actor Esai Morales for "intentional and negligent transmission of a sexually transmitted disease, assault, battery, and breach of contract." Elizabeth Mazzocchi alleges that actor Esai Morales assaulted her and gave her herpes. The suit also alleges that Morales told Mazzocchi that if she ever called the police, he would have "every gangbanger in town looking to kill (her)."[4]
She is representing 3 former Circuit City employees in an age discrimination lawsuit against that company after they fired 3,400 workers in April 2007.[5]
In September 2007, she represented Tony Barretto, a former bodyguard of troubled pop singer Britney Spears, in the Spears and ex-husband, Kevin Federline child custody case.
She represents Mandi Hamlin in a March 2008 complaint against the TSA. Hamlin was reported to have been humiliated when she was made to take off her nipple rings in a Lubbock, Texas, airport.[1]
In April 2008, it was reported that she had been hired by the family of the teenager who had been beaten and filmed by eight Florida teenagers.[6] She also appeared on Today with Jessica Gibson, who is counter-suing Rob Lowe for sexual harassment. [2]
On February 24, 2004, Gloria Allred, and her law firm, Allred, Moroco and Goldberg, filed the first lawsuit in California challenging the denial of marriage licenses as being unconstitutional. She took the case pro bono for Robin Tyler and Diane Olson; and Rev. Troy Perry and his husband Phillip Ray De Blieck. On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of equal marriage rights for lesbian and gay couples.
Allred in the media
Allred appears in a cameo role in the film Rat Race wherein the character Wayne Knight exclaims "Oh shit, it's Gloria Allred!", after she has witnessed him hit a pedestrian. She also appears earlier in the film where the Cody brothers, played by Seth Green and Vince Vieluf, attempt to start a lawsuit against a hotel by slipping on a glass they placed at the top of a set of stairs. Before they go through with their plan, a woman slips on the glass and falls down the stairs. At the bottom, Gloria Allred introduces herself and plans to sue the hotel for negligence.
In the The Simpsons episode "Behind The Laughter," she is featured at the family's lawyer-ridden Thanksgiving, being described as a "Shrill feminist attorney."
In the South Park episode "Cripple Fight," Gloria Allred is Big Gay Al's lawyer against a Boy Scouts-like club that excludes homosexuals.
See also
- Fight Back and Win (2006) by Gloria Allred. ISBN 0-06-073928-2.
Footnotes
- ^ State Bar of CA :: Gloria Rachel Allred
- ^ ARIANNA ONLINE - December 24, 1997 - Goodbye, 1997 - Gloria Allred and her petty grievances
- ^ Victims' Rights Lawyer: TV Fixture. CBS News (May 25, 2002). Retrieved on 2006-11-11.
- ^ Associated Press (2007). Ex-girlfriend sues Esai Morales, saying actor assaulted her. mercurynews.com. Retrieved on July 23, 2007.
- ^ http://video.msn.com/v/us/Money.htm?g=911ce441-4f24-423a-9443-a085e32f8485&f=15/64TodaysPick&p=hotvideo_money%20top%20ten&fg=
- ^ Lindsay Family Hire Allred, http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=78204
