So what's the story behind the Maury suit?

Maury Povich today says, "We will defend this lawsuit vigorously!"

We know Maury to be a stand-up guy, and though we don't know the 28-year-old female producer who's hit him and his syndicated talk show with an embarrassing $100 million sexual harassment suit, we do know that she has more than a few problems that $100 million would surely help ease.

Bianca Nardi’s own lawsuit states that she’s in psychiatric treatment (allegedly because of the harassment) and has gained fifty pounds (because of the stress, not the Haagan Daas).

It's also been reported that the woman’s mother died from necrotizing fasciitis, the flesh-eating bacteria, which could have added to her personal traumas.

Nardi's mother, Robin Miller, was the Republican registrar of voters in Stonington, Connecticut, and 52 years old when she died in 2003.


(What will she look like when
she's crying on the stand?
Click here to see video
of Bianca's tearful interview
after her mother's death.)


Hey, we don’t stick up for sex harassers, nor do we go after the victims. But we know that Maury Povich is no Bill O’Reilly (interesting that they were once competing tabloid television hosts, when Maury starred in A Current Affair and pre-pompous O’Reilly fronted a competing show). Before O'Reilly was sued for sex harassment, there had been gossip about his phone sex predilection and knowledge of his bullying manner. When the charges were made public, there was shock but no surprise.

Despite its salacious onscreen content, there’s been no scuttlebutt about the Maury show. Our own Doug Bruckner was a guest on the show twice this year and reports only on the professionalism of Maury Povich and his production staff.

Of course, sexual sparks fly behind the scenes in the high-pressure business of television series production, especially on a daily television show, like Maury’s, that runs and succeeds with sexual topics from porn to phone sex to hookers. And on shows like these, young female producers are often given the chance to jump ahead in the game by bringing hidden cameras into sex clubs or other volatile situations. And they jump at the chance. Or they don’t. Or they quit.

Or, thanks to Bill O’Reilly and his quick quiet payoff, they sue because they realize they’re getting older and won’t be moving up much higher than they are— and could resent that gal who’s producing the show because she must be screwing the host or she wouldn’t have gotten the job.

Anyway, Maury and his wife Connie Chung are good people. They even showed up, as planned, for a live interview in Washington D.C. today to face the music and the kind of tabloid baby frenzy that Maury himself helped invent.

Maury said he’d fight. And Connie was right by him.

So as the suit sorts itself out, we at Tabloid Baby repeat what we wrote on January 4th:

Maury and Connie are two of the coolest people in the business, real straightforward, and very fun on television. They are the tops.

(...and read Maury's story here.)