Suit Filed Against Brando’s Estate
Marlon Brando’s former business manager sued the late actor’s estate Monday for sexual harassment and wrongful termination, alleging that the Oscar-winning star of “The Godfather” and “On the Waterfront” had subjected her to a hostile work environment that included exposing his genitals, touching her inappropriately and insisting that she watch pornographic films with him.
The suit by Jo An Corrales of Kalama, Wash., was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
A personal friend of Brando for 40 years, she says that in the two years before the actor’s death last summer he subjected her and other women to constant sexual references, derogatory name-calling, sexual innuendos and other acts that she found harassing and ultimately led to her firing as his business manager and her removal as co-executor of his will just 12 days before he died.
Brando died of lung failure July 1 in Los Angeles. He was 80.
David J. Seeley, the attorney for the Brando estate, said late Monday that he had not yet read the complaint and had no comment.
He said, however, that the estate’s trustees already had rejected a $3.5-million claim that Corrales filed in December.
Corrales, who worked for Brando for four years as a business manager, maintained an office in Washington state but often would commute to Brando’s house on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills.
She said that in August 2003, because of continued sexual harassment, she began sleeping in a motor home parked on his property as much as possible instead of in Brando’s house or guest house.
The suit, filed by Newport Beach attorneys Peter J. Linden and Joel F. Pipes, claims that Brando would subject Corrales to sexually graphic stories, “including several documenting his sexual escapades with minors over the years, which Corrales found very disturbing.”
The suit asks for 10% of the $5 million in residuals that Corrales says Brando received during the time of her employment.
Corrales also has filed an objection with the probate court presiding over the Brando estate, saying that the trustees are mismanaging and underpricing the development of the actor’s private Tahitian atoll, Tetiaroa.
But Seeley, the estate’s attorney, said the transaction has been closely examined and that he supports the estate’s position that it should go forward.
Meanwhile, Corrales’ attorneys submitted documents in probate court Monday that reveal Brando signed a quit claim deed in June 2003 that granted his close friend, singer Michael Jackson, currently on trial for child molestation, a half-acre plot on the islet of Onetahi on Tetiaroa.
