Emmy-winning director and screenwriter Sacha Gervasi subjected an interior designer to sexual harassment for months — while expecting his second child, a new lawsuit alleges.
Gervasi is best known as the director of the 2012 Oscar-nominated ‘Hitchcock’ starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson and is also the father of former spice girl Geri Halliwell’s teenage daughter Bluebell. He “caressed” and harassed Diana Lands Nathanson several times in anticipation of the birth of his first child with wife Jessica de Rothschild, Lands claims.
Gervasi and de Rothschild welcomed their baby together via surrogate in December 2021, sources confirmed to Vidak For Congress, but just weeks later, on January 3, 2022, Lands, a divorced mother of three, claimed Gervasi had her pinned to a table. , attacked her and imprisoned her for a short time.
In a statement to Vidak For Congress, Gervasi’s attorney Jeremiah Reynolds called the lawsuit “nothing but a desperate attempt to divert from the lawsuit already filed by my clients against Ms. paid her to buy on their behalf and for the damage and destruction she negligently caused to their home.”
A source close to Gervasi also claimed to Vidak For Congress Friday that the couple exchanged friendly text messages on Jan. 3 about the best place to get burgers in Malibu, followed by hundreds of “warm” messages complete with “heart emojis” in the months that followed. followed .
Gervasi and de Rosthschild also filed suit against Lands in May seeking to recover nearly half a million dollars worth of property she bought on their behalf, which Vidak For Congress saw.
Lands, 57, claimed in her suit, seen by Vidak For Congress, that Gervasi, 56, whom she had briefly dated in the 1990s, made frequent “bitten” and inappropriate sexual advances on her.
However, she said she thought she might be overlooking this, as she had befriended his wife and had already worked on two projects for them.
Indeed, the suit — which claimed Gervais, the screenwriter of Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film ‘The Terminal’, was a “monster” and a “predator” — claimed: “Lands knew from personal experience that groping, rubbing and stroking of women was part of Gervasi’s modus operandi.
Nevertheless, she then signed on for a “major remodel and redesign” of the couple’s Hollywood Hills home.
However, on July 9, 2021, Lands claimed that things escalated after she and Gervasi met a contractor at the house.
After the meeting, she claimed in the lawsuit, which was first reported by the Daily Mail: “Lands opened the car door and turned to say ‘goodbye’.
“They hugged, and then Gervasi started hugging each other even tighter, saying how beautiful Lands was and that they should have been together, and ‘couldn’t they figure out how they could be together?’
Gervasi then allegedly tried to kiss Lands, and “when she refused, Gervasi pushed her against the car and forced his body against hers.”
The lawsuit’s allegations continued: “Gervasi pushed his erect penis against Lands’ body and tried to stick his tongue in her mouth.
Lands kept turning her head and saying, ‘No, don’t do that.’
But ‘as Gervasi pushed Lands, he placed his hands on her breasts, moved them over her dress and on her bottom, and pushed aside her underwear to get his hands between her legs.
“Again, Lands told him to stop and he wouldn’t listen.”
But in the end, the lawsuit went: “Lands was able to push him off enough to get in the car and close the door.”
She said she drove off “trembling and in tears” and told friends about the alleged assault.
Although Lands said she was “shocked” by Gervasi’s behavior, she continued to work on the project, as he wouldn’t be back in LA until December 2021, when the project would be completed about five months later. She also considered De Rothschild a “close friend”, and had not yet paid anything for her services.
When it became clear that the Hollywood Hills home would not be ready before December, Gervasi and de Rothschild asked Lands to furnish and design their Malibu home. At a meeting outside this house, Gervais reportedly made “repeated” advances toward Lands again, the lawsuit alleged.
The suit then said that on January 3, 2022, weeks after their new baby was born, Gervasi attacked Lands on the Hollywood Hills property. They met to discuss plans, but instead he tried to force her Christmas candies.
The suit read: “From the chair Gervasi was sitting, he pulled Lands onto his lap, put his hand between her legs, kissed her neck and tried to feed her the various candies. She fought to get off his lap, but Gervasi pulled her onto the table and lay on top of her. His hands were on her wrists above her head. He tried to push his tongue into her mouth as he pushed into her.
“Lands managed to get out from under him and when she tried to leave, he closed the door so she couldn’t get out. Again Gervasi pushed his body against Lands and tried to kiss her on the neck and mouth.
Lands kept telling him to stop and she had to get out of the room and leave. Finally she got the door open and she could leave the room. He chased Lands to her car and tried to tell her again that she wanted it.”
The lawsuit added that while Lands “made sure she was never alone with Gervasi under any circumstances,” she continued to work for him and his wife because they had not yet paid her for months of work on both their Hollywood Hills homes. as in Malibu and she didn’t want them to “solidify” her.
“However, she suffered from constant anxiety and fear, he was unable to sleep normally and the situation was affecting her health,” the lawsuit claimed.
Lands is now demanding $677,000 for unpaid design work, in addition to attorneys’ fees, costs, and interest.
She is also seeking reasonable damages to cover her emotional distress and punitive damages, her lawyers told Vidak For Congress.
Gervasi’s attorney, Reynolds, alleged that Lands offered not to file a sexual harassment charge against Gervasi if he “agreed to pay her several hundred thousand dollars more—despite the fact that she had already wrongfully committed nearly half a million dollars to her.” withheld cash and property from my clients. .
“When my clients refused to be shaken, Ms. Lands continued with these demonstrably false claims about Sacha Gervasi.
“We have hundreds of text messages and numerous witnesses that will refute Ms Lands’ allegations in court and fully justify Mr Gervasi,” Reynolds added.
At this, Lands’ attorney, Bryan Freedman, told Vidak For Congress: “As a single mother who worked tirelessly for Mrs. Rothschild and Mr. Gervasi, my client was not only unpaid for her work, but persecuted and sexually harassed bullies who abused their power, privilege and
money to avoid responsibility. I look forward to their judgment day before a jury.”
At this, Lands’ attorney, Bryan Freedman, told Vidak For Congress: “As a single mother who worked tirelessly for Mrs. Rothschild and Mr. Gervasi, my client was not only unpaid for her work, but persecuted and sexually harassed bullies who abused their power, privilege and
money to avoid responsibility. I look forward to their judgment day before a jury.”
In addition to directing “The Terminal,” Gervasi also directed the 2010 documentary Anvil about the Canadian heavy metal band of the same name, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary.
In 2019 he won an Emmy for ‘My Dinner With Hervé’, starring Peter Dinklage as French actor Hervé Villechaize.