Sexually Harassed by TV Executives, Woman’s Suit Says

A woman who once worked for the television show “Candid Camera” is seeking more than $1.5 million in damages from the show, its production company and two production executives for alleged sexual harassment, her attorney said Tuesday.

In her lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lisa Kivel, a former executive assistant to the show’s producers, said Tzvi Small, the show’s executive in charge of production, and Greg Sills, the executive producer, sexually harassed her repeatedly between June, 1990, and last August.

King World Productions, the show’s production company, is also a defendant in the suit alleging wrongful termination based on sex discrimination, sexual harassment, battery, sexual battery and assault.

A King World Productions attorney in Los Angeles referred questions about the suit to a company representative in New York. That representative could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

According to the suit, Sills commented on the size of Kivel’s breasts, tried to look down her blouse and rubbed against her body. The suit said Small told Kivel he was sexually aroused when he thought of her. Angry when Kivel refused to have sex with him, Small threw papers and pens at her, the suit said.

Kivel complained to Dick Schmidt, a co-producer of “Candid Camera,” and to Erni DiMassa, vice president of production of King World, about the sexual harassment, the suit said, but they took no action to end it.

Kivel said in her suit that she was fired because she had refused Small’s requests to have sex with him and because she refused to submit to Sills’ continuing harassment. “She has been severely traumatized by what happened,” said Kivel’s lawyer, Shirley K. Watkins.