MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

Lawsuit Filed Against Daily Variety: A lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and violation of freedom of speech rights against the show business trade newspaper was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by former employee John Roberts, who was terminated last November after almost four years as the newspaper’s assistant production manager. The suit charges the paper and publisher Michael Silverman with retaliating against the openly gay Roberts after he publicly opposed funding a charity benefiting the Boy Scouts, which has an anti-gay membership policy. Silverman was not available for comment. The stress produced by the harassment caused him to take a doctor-ordered leave, he said, and he was terminated soon after.