A former Rangers cheerleader who sued Madison Square Garden for sexual discrimination has filed hundreds of pages of documents to support her claims and answer the arguments by her former employer that her claims rest on thin ice.
Courtney Prince said in an affidavit dated Wednesday that her MSG bosses asked her to deliver messages to other cheerleaders that included stuffing their bras, losing weight and looking more “doable.”
I tried to do so gently and respectfully, but I felt that I was being used to objectify the skaters and undermine their own sense of professionalism,” she wrote.
Prince, 29, said MSG failed to properly protect the dozen skating cheerleaders from being touched inappropriately when they went into the crowd at games and required them to be glamorous and to wear padded bras, fake eyelashes and hairpieces.
The affidavit answers claims by MSG’s lawyers in papers filed last month in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Prince sued the company in October 2004, saying she was fired that January after warning fellow cheerleaders that at least one member of management was a sexual predator.
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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recommended that MSG have its employees undergo sexual harassment discrimination training and pay Prince $800,000 in damages.