A former Paramount executive reportedly filed a discrimination lawsuit against the entertainment company on Friday, claiming he was fired for thinking “old” and being white.
Joseph Jerome filed a lawsuit in California federal court challenging Paramount’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, which the 58-year-old says led to his firing in 2024, according to a report by the Hollywood Reporter.
Notably, Paramount’s DEI-related policies have since been rolled back or eliminated following President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Now, Jerome — who had worked for Paramount since 1994 and most recently served as production counsel to Entertainment Tonight — alleges in his lawsuit that he and two other white CBS Media Ventures (CMV) attorneys were fired and replaced with minority employees.
The former Paramount executive reportedly claims he was replaced by a 25-year-old black law school graduate and ex-CMV intern, while his two ex-colleagues were replaced by young Asian attorneys whose former jobs were eliminated due to corporate restructuring.
The complaint adds that CMV was roughly evenly split between white and minority lawyers at the start of 2024, and that all attorneys fired in the division that year were white and over the age of 50.
In the lawsuit, Jerome details a late 2023 meeting he had with then-CBS News president Wendy McMahon, allegedly complained about shows in her division resulting in older demographics, and ordered staff to attract younger viewers by hiring younger staffers, the Hollywood Reporter noted.
Not long after that meeting, Jerome was criticized for thinking “old” during a discussion about a potential deal after he flagged a legal term of art that was being misused, the complaint claims.
Jerome’s lawsuit comes after CBS Studios settled another discrimination lawsuit in April, in which a former script coordinator for SEAL Team accused its parent company, Paramount, of being denied career advancement because he did not “check any diversity boxes” for being white and straight.
That lawsuit also cited past remarks from then-CBS CEO George Cheeks, who in 2020 allegedly announced an initiative to ensure 40 percent of all writers’ rooms have “BIPOC representation” for the following season, as well as a goal to increase the figure to 50 percent the season after that, according to a report by New York Post.
As for Jerome, his attorneys say he was discriminated against based on his race and age, in violation of federal and state law. The former Paramount employee is now seeking statutory and punitive damages.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
