Gina Riggi, a longtime makeup artist for Charlie Rose, who worked with the talk-show host for 22 years on his eponymous PBS show, is suing him and Bloomberg LP, describing “a toxic work environment suffused with sexual harassment and gender-based abuse.” She also accuses Rose of “using the Show as an instrument of his predatory sexual behavior and the Bloomberg studio where he recorded it as a sexual hunting ground.” The makeup room, she writes in the suit, was a “refuge from Mr. Rose,” where young women “often came to her in tears, distraught and visibly shaken.”
Riggi says Rose “targeted young, attractive women just beginning their journalism careers,” promising them internships and jobs, many of which never materialized. The ones who did get jobs, she writes, were subject to harassment. She says Rose was verbally abusive to her on a daily basis, berating her about her weight, and that he frequently swatted away her hand while she worked, and once “forcefully grabbed and twisted her arm, physically hurting her.” The show was canceled in November 2017, after the Washington Post reported that eight women accused him of harassment and assault. The reported tally eventually rose to at least 35 women.
