By Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Producer/Reporter
MANHATTAN — The divorce between NBC and Conan O’Brien has hit more roadblocks.
The network and the "Tonight Show" host can't agree on how much severance money O'Brien's staff should get in his buyout package.
It's been widely reported that O'Brien himself will get roughly $32.5 million from NBC, but he's reportedly asking for another $7.5 million for his staff and $4.5 million for executive producer Jeff Ross, TMZ.com reported. But that's $600,000 more than NBC is willing to give.
"It was Conan's decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work,” the network said, according to the Daily News. “We have already agreed to pay millions of dollars to compensate every one of them. This latest posturing is nothing more than a PR ploy.”
Meanwhile, O'Brien slammed NBC again in his monologue Tuesday night — this time in two languages. After singing his complaints yesterday, O'Brien said “some papers are reporting that I’m legally prohibited from saying anything bad about NBC. For example, I am NOT allowed to say things like: ‘NBC is headed downhill faster than a fat guy chasing a runaway cheese-wheel.’
“But nobody said anything about speaking in Spanish. NBC esta manejado por hijos de cabras imbeciles que comen dinero y evacuan problemas.”
In English, that means "NBC is run by brainless sons of goats who eat money and crap trouble."
O'Brien's lawyers are also haggling out how long O'Brien will be legally barred from saying bad things about NBC, TMZ.com reported.
Legal wrangling aside, O’Brien fans can expect the host to leave with a bang. He’s scheduled to have Adam Sandler, Robin Williams, Barry Manilow, Tom Hanks and Will Ferrell on the show in what are reportedly his last three shows at NBC this week.
