FOX TV HOST O'Reilly sues over sex harassment claim

The television commentator filed suit first.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NEW YORK -- Fox TV host Bill O'Reilly took to the airwaves Wednesday night to slam an employee's claims he subjected her to sleazy phone sex and other lewd harassment -- charging he's the victim of a $60 million shakedown attempt.
Andrea Mackris, an associate producer of "The O'Reilly Factor," accused the conservative talk show host of making "disgusting" calls to her -- and threatening to ruin her career if she complained.
O'Reilly fired back with a lawsuit of his own, contending he's the target of a politically motivated extortion plot to "punish" him and Fox News.
"In the end, the justice system will take care of this situation," he told his 3 million viewers Wednesday night. "It's a shame this can happen in a country like this."
What's alleged
In her lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Mackris, 33, charged that O'Reilly pelted her with sexually explicit phone calls, pestered her for three-way sex with another woman and bragged in lurid detail about his prowess in bed.
It was the latest -- and most personal -- controversy to envelop O'Reilly, a best-selling author and writer whose syndicated column appears in the New York Daily News. His popular TV show has become a lightning rod for criticism from the left.
Mackris, of Manhattan, had worked with O'Reilly since April 2000, apart from six months earlier this year, when she moved to CNN.
She said her boss started making lewd comments after she split with her fiance in May 2001, and the alleged harassment escalated after she returned to Fox in July.
In three calls since August, O'Reilly, 55, who is married and lives on Long Island, spoke graphically about his sexual fantasies during a series of "perverted ravings," she claims.
Pre-emptive suit
Her lawsuit was filed hours after O'Reilly and Fox News launched a pre-emptive attack -- suing Mackris and her lawyer, Benedict Morelli.
O'Reilly's team claims that, at numerous meetings with Morelli, the "defendants demanded $60 million in hush money to keep quiet and never once lowered this outrageous demand."
And they said Mackris made no official complaints of sexual misconduct to Fox News -- that in fact she wrote of being happy at work only last month.
In an e-mail to a friend, she said: "Things are wonderful, amazing, fun, creative, invigorating, secure, well-managed, challenging, interesting, fun and surrounded by really good, fun people. I'm home and I'll never leave again," according to the O'Reilly camp.
Price of fame
On his TV show Wednesday night, O'Reilly told viewers, "Just about every famous person I know has been threatened and worked over by somebody." "Fame makes you a target."
"There comes a time when enough's enough," he added. "And so this morning I had to file a lawsuit against some people who are demanding $60 million or they will quote 'punish' me and Fox News."