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Obscenity not necessarily harrassment, judges rule

Daily Staff Report

SAN FRANCISCO – Sometimes vulgarity is not just acceptable but necessary in the workplace, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday as it threw out a sexual harassment case by a former assistant on the “Friends” TV show.The justices, ruling 7-0, agreed with Warner Bros. Television Productions that trash talk was part of the creative process and, therefore, the studio and its writers could not be sued for raunchy writers’ meetings.The court added that no jury would believe the writers’ assistant was the target of harassment during profanity-laced meetings.”The record discloses that most of the sexually coarse and vulgar language at issue did not involve and was not aimed at plaintiff or other women in the workplace,” Justice Marvin Baxter wrote.Amaani Lyle, 32, alleged six years ago that raw sexual remarks peppering work sessions and conversations added up to harassment against women.Lyle said she was offended by repeated references to the actors’ sex lives and to the writers’ own sexual exploits as they penned the successful NBC sitcom rife with bawdy banter about six New York City friends.


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