By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A photographer is suing her former Chelsea boss for allegedly luring her into bed with the promise of a top position at one of the country’s biggest photography studios, according to reports.
Pier 59 Studio owner Federico Pignatelli claims that Maryam Sayigh’s lawsuit is baloney, telling the New York Post that she was “far too unattractive” for him to sleep with.
The suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court says Pignatelli made advances toward Sayigh as soon as the pair arrived in Europe for a two-week business trip on which the photography honcho had asked Sayigh to join him as his executive assistant, the paper reported.
"As soon as they arrived in Europe, on or about June 13, 2008, Pignatelli began to act inappropriately towards Sayigh, insisting that [she] stay in the same hotel room as him while they were in St.-Tropez, even though the hotel room only had a single bed," the suit says.
Sayigh initially rejected Pignatelli’s advances, but eventually gave in while the two were on his boat in the Mediterranean Sea, on which he’d often sunbathe in the nude, the suit says.
Pignatelli allegedly promised Sayigh a promotion to be his second-in-command at the Chelsea Piers photo studio upon the pair’s return to the U.S.
Eventually she said again denied her boss, at which point, the suit alleges, Pignatelli got angry when Sayigh would not help him pick up other women to bed.
When she told him "she was not his madam," he "grew very angry and threatened to fire Sayigh, telling her getting him women was part of her job," the Post quotes the suit as saying.
When they returned to New York, Sayigh was not promoted as promised, according to the Daily News, and Pignatelli ultimately fired her in February.
"She didn't do what she was supposed to do," he told the News. "She only created a huge mess."
