Electronically FILED by Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles on 06/07/2019 05:07 PM Sherri R. Carter, Executive Officer/Clerk of Court, by B. McClendon,Deputy Clerk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 VENABLE LLP Michael J. O'Connor(SBN 90017) MJO'Connor@venable.com Sarah L. Cronin(SBN 252624) SLCronin@venable.com Cary L. Finkelstein(SBN 302138) CLFinkelstein@venable.com 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2300 Los Angeles, CA 90067 Telephone: 310.229.9900 310.229.9901 Facsimile: Attorneys for Defendant BRYAN BEHAR 8 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 9 IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES 10 11 12 w a" a ~~o ~ ~W V rn P~ ~ J N Assigned to: 13 d ¢"' ~''• 15 w ~a"~ ~~o 16 v. U 0 Action Filed: April 16, 2019 None Set Trial Date: 17 N 18 Hon. Craig D. Karlan, Dept. N DECLARATION OF SILISHA PLATON IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT BRYAN BEHAR'S MOTION TO STRIKE COMPLAINT PURSUANT TO SECTION 425.16 Plaintiffs, 14 z a ~ o Z J W Case No. 19SMCV00721 JEFF FRANKLIN,an individual; and MOOSE PRODUCTIONS,INC., a California corporation, BRYAN BEHAR,an individual; and DOES 150, inclusive, Notice ofMotion &Motion, Declarations [ ofBryan Behar and Michael J. O'Connor and[Proposed] Order Filed Concurrently Herewith] 19 Defendant. 20 December 5, 2019 8:30 a.m. N 22 Date: Time: Dept.: 23 Reservation ID: 035850192374 21 24 25 26 27 28 1 DECLARATION OF SILISHA PLATON Case No. 19SMCV00721 I, Silisha Platon, formerly Silisha Sidell, declare as follows: 2 1. I am employed by Warner Bros. Studio Enterprises Inc. as the Vice President of 3 Labor Relations. I have worked at Warner Bros. since February 2000. If called as a witness, I 4 could and would competently testify to the matters stated herein. 5 2. In ?016, Warner Bros. conducted an investigation into Jeff Franklin's conduct in 6 ~ ~ the workplace after a complaint was made about Franklin's onset behavior. During the 0 0 ~ ~~ ~o a ll a'~ 0 7 investigation concerns were raised regarding Franklin's handling ofpregnancy-related 8 for time off for doctor appointments, as well as concerns about equal treatment of male and 9 female writers in the writer's room on Fuller House. The investigation was concluded and requests 10 Franklin received verbal counseling as to the necessity of appropriate, business-like behavior and 11 equal treatment. While 1 was not personally involved in the 2016 investigation into Franklin' s 1? workplace behavior, I reviewed the facts related to that investigation, in connection with the 13 investigation I conducted into Franklin's workplace behavior starting at the end of2017 and 14 continuing into 2018. N a ~w~ ~ ~w~ z a ~o W aQ~; 15 ~ _~ 16 a writer on Fzrller House, claiming that Jeff Franklin, the Fuller House showrunner at the time, 17 had created a toxic and inappropriate work environment in the writer's room. Shortly after l8 learning ofthis complaint, it came to Warner Bros.' attention that another female writer on Fuller F J Z W 3. In November 2017, Warner Bros. received a complaint by a woman who had been U a N 19 ' House was making similar claims about Franklin's conduct. Based on these complaints, Warner 20 21 Bros. initiated an investigation into Franklin's workplace behavior. 4. I headed up Warner Bros.' investigation into Franklin's workplace behavior and 22 conducted the investigation along with Kenzie Levine, a Warner Bros.' employee in the Labor 23 Relations Department, who was under my supervision. Warner Bros. Studio Enterprises Inc. was 24 the entity that handled the investigation because it has a service agreement with Horizon Scripted 25 Television Inc. to perform its Labor Relations functions, which includes handling complaints by 26 ~ or about the union-represented production population. 27 28 2 DECLARATION OF S1L15HA PLATON Case No, l9SMCV00721 1 3 conducted between January 31, 2018 and February 22, 2018. I personally conducted the first 4 interviews of four separate women. These women were selecte d by me, based on my review of which women writers on Facller House did not come back and did not have a known reason for not coming back to Fuller House. 7 or deny the clams about Franklin that had been made by the first four women interviewed. Bryan Behar was one of the four people 7 selected to be interviewed as a witness and was interviewed at the end ofthe investigation, on February 21 and February 22, 2018. Behar did not approach me or any ofthe executives at Warner Bros. to be interviewed, rather, we approached him. Behar was reluctant to participate in the investigation. 12 13 o. N 14 w gN 7. who could potentially confirm All of the statements made during the investigation by the eight intervi ewees were 15 reviewed by me. To protect the identity ofthe women who were interviewed, I will 16 as Jane Does I through 7. W a Q m r N ~~o women staffers 9 N W N ~ ~o After I conducted the initial four interviews offormer and current on Fuller House, I selected an additional four people to interview 11 W U g a ~a yJ ~ rn 6. These interviews were 8 10 ~7 N uals consisting of current and former staffers on Fuller House, were interviewed. 6 s~ Specifically, as part of Warner Bros.' investigation, eight(8) individ 2 5 0 0 m 5. refer to them U 17 8. The following statements are just some of the statements that were made l8 Franklin's conduct in the workplace by the interviewees in the course of 19 of which were made by Mr. Behar: 20 i. 22 ii. 23 27 "It's important that I say the environment is hostile."(Jane Doe 7) "1 don't recall one other show where Ifelt—women weren't particular liked here."(Jane Doe 7) iii. 25 26 the investigation, none a. Dismissive /Hostile Environment 21 24 about Jeff "He would be angry towards women and not interested in their opinions."(Jane Doe 7) iv. "1 felt emotionally and mentally abused because 1 was a woman." (Jane Doe 3) 28 3 DECLARATION OF SlL[SHA PLATON Case No. 19SMCV00721 I b. Sexualized Comments /Work Environment 2 i. 3 "She is probably going to be pregnant next season. I wish I could make all the women on my staff get hysterectomies." (Jane Doe 5) 4 ii. 5 "She's one nose job away from a good f***" about one of the underage girls." (Jane Doe 6) 6 iii. 7 Franklin would talk about orgies he had over the weekend. (Jane Doe 6) 8 c. Harassment /Discrimination Based on Protected Class 9 i. He had his assistant request all the writers come to his mansion for a fsl, week to write and they were reminded multiple times to bring their bikinis. (Jane Doe 3; confirmed by Jane Doe 4) 0 12 ii. When complaining about a female director he was told,"you could have N ar Nam ,~.,7 ~N< U o 2 m "~ u1 w of ~ W Q uo ]3 hired another female director," to which Franklin replied, "please, they're 14 all the same." (Jane Doe 3) 15 iii. He told the writer's room that he does not date Jewish women, and then W a Q m >~ O Z 16 said,"Sorry to all the Jewish women in the room." (Jane Doe 3) U 17 iv. Franklin preferred male writers over female writers. (Jane Doe 7) I8 v. Franklin complained about having to hire directors that were women or N 19 20 people of color. (Jane Doe 7) 9. At the conclusion of the investigation, and based upon my review of the testimo ny 21 of all of the witnesses who had been interviewed, I concluded that there was sufficient evidence 22 to find that Jeff Franklin's conduct had created a toxic work environment that 23 writers and persons of color. 24 10. impacted female Mr. Behar's testimony given during the course of this investigation was not a 25 substantial factor in my concluding that Franklin had created a toxic and inappro 26 environment. Rather, Mr. Behar's statements only corroborated some of the less serious 27 statements made by the other witnesses, including Jane Does 1 through 7, about Jeff Franklin's priate work 28 4 DECLARATION OF SILISHA PLATON Case No. 19SMCV00721 VENABLE LLP 2049 CENTURY PARK EA STI SUITE 2300 LOS ANGELES, CA 90067 310.229.9900 Ab.) OOHON workplace conduct. 1 1. On February 22, 2018, I reported the results of the workplace investigation and my ?ndings of gender bias, inappropriate and offensive comments about women and persons of color, and sexualizing the workplace, all by Franklin, to executives at Horizon Scripted Television Inc. I conveyed my opinion that, in substance, based on the results of the workplace investigations and my ?ndings, Horizon Scripted Television Inc. should not renew Franklin?s contract to continue as showrunner for season 4 of Fuller House. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on June 1, 2019 at Burbank, California. I I Silisha Platon 5 DECLARATION OF SILISHA PLATON Case No. I9SMCV00721 PROOF OF SERVICE 2 STATE OF CALIFORNIA 3 COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES 4 I am employed in the County of Los Angeles, State of California. I am over the age of 18 and not a party to the within action; my business address is 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2300, Los Angeles, CA 90067. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 g 12 N ~W ~ a ll o 13 a W ~, W a~~ 14 ss. On June 7, 2019,I served a copy of the foregoing documents described as DECLARATION OF SILISHA PLATON IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT BRYAN BEHAR'S MOTION TO STRIKE COMPLAINT PURSUANT TO SECTION 425.16 on the interested parties in this action addressed as follows: Stanton L. Stein, Esq. Diana A. Sanders, Esq. RUSS, AUGUST & KABAT 12424 Wilshire Boulevard 12th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90025 lstein(a~raklaw.com dsanders(a~raklaw.com Telephone: (310)826-7474 Facsimile: (310)826-6991 Q By placing true copies thereof enclosed in a sealed envelopes) addressed as stated above. a YW°' N zw ~a~ a ~o 1S ~g Z w 16 17 N 18 19 20 Q BY MAIL(CCP §1013(a)&(b)): I am readily familiar with the firm's practice of collection and processing correspondence for mailing with the U.S. Postal Service. Under that practice such envelopes) is deposited with the U.S. Postal Service on the same day this declaration was executed, with postage thereon fully prepaid at 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2300, Los Angeles, California, in the ordinary course of business. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws ofthe State of California that the above is true and correct. Executed on June 7, 2019 at Los Angeles, California. 21 22 23 Karen M. Tjaden 24 25 26 27 28 C DECLARATION OF SILISHA PLATON Case No. 19SMCV00721