NEW YORK CITY — Pop superstar Lady Gaga has pulled out of hosting her sister’s bachelorette party at infamous downtown club The Box later after Patch first reported on a lawsuit accusing the nightclub’s management of allowing male clients to sexually assault waitresses and instructing female employees to engage in sex, excessive alcohol consumption and drug use, all under the threat of punishment or termination.
The nightclub, which opened in 2007, has long been known for its racy cabaret performances and celebrity clientele from Taylor Swift to Miley Cyrus. A lawsuit filed Nov. 21 in New York Southern District Court detailed the club’s alleged dark side, with a former bottle waitress contending she was physically, verbal and sexually harassed by a management team who not only allowed “customers to sexually harass and abuse her,” but pressured her “to lure male customers to The Box so that they could be sexually serviced by others.”
Read more: Sex, Drugs Forced On Women Employees At Exclusive NYC Nightclub: Lawsuit
After tabloid speculation surrounding Lady Gaga’s decision to go through with the scheduled bachelorette party, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Patch last week that the singer’s team scrapped the event.
Representatives for Lady Gaga and The Box did not return multiple requests for comment. Attorneys for all Box bosses named in the lawsuit denied the accusations, according to court records.
The lawsuit is the latest filed against The Box and its management, who came under fire in a spate of previous complaints filed by former employees between March 2020 and 2021, accusing them of everything from illegally pooled tips and deliberately over-serving customers to turning a blind eye to the rampant use of drugs in-house and pressure to take shots of alcohol and cocaine with clientele and owner Simon Hammerstein.
Former employees aren’t the only ones calling out alleged sex harassment in the nightclub, either. A Patch review of NYPD sex abuse complaints at The Box found reports filed as recently as December 2023.
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