Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart have been in Europe for the past week or so (maybe longer). She’s in the midst of her European tour, but she doesn’t seem to be performing every night or anything, which must be nice – she and Casper get to spend quality time sight-seeing or going out dinner in various beautiful European cities. Over the weekend, she was in Copenhagen and before that she was in Berlin. It was in Berlin that a hotel maid approached Jennifer for an autograph. Not only did Jennifer NOT give this woman an autograph, Jennifer got the maid fired. Harsh, J.Lo. Totally harsh.
Jennifer Lopez was not acting out a scene from Maid in Manhattan! A maid who worked at the luxury hotel Melia Duesseldorf was fired after asking the superstar for her autograph, according to German newspaper Bild.
“I cleaned on her floor. And I am an incredibly big fan so I took all my courage and rang the bell to get an autograph,” Pray Dodaj said about when she tried to approach J.Lo. “But I was rejected by two assistants at the door.”
Pray said that even though she didn’t get an autograph from the singer, her employer fired her anyway.
“A day later the cleaning company that employed me at the hotel called and said that Ms. Lopez had complained. I was fired right there on the phone! Because of an autograph!”
Jennifer is on her European tour and performed in Dusseldorf on October 31. Tweeting about the night, she wrote: “Here’s my costume! #HappyHalloween! My team and I had fun celebrating in Dusseldorf and Oberhausen! #peace&love!”
Cyrus Heydarian, the hotel director, explained why they fired the maid, even though she never got the autograph from J.Lo.
“She has acted contrary to the contractual arrangements and disturbed the privacy of our guests.”
Luckily for Pray, she was offered a job at another hotel.
Honestly, I could see how the maid probably violated her contract by acting like a fan-girl towards ANY celebrity. If this was a story about a maid simply being shut down when she approached a celebrity for an autograph, I might even see the celebrity’s side of it – I mean, how weird would it be to have a maid knock on your hotel door and ask for your autograph? That would creep me out! But it’s altogether different when J.Lo goes the extra mile to get the poor woman fired! That’s some major diva ‘tude.
Ooooh… J.Lo denied this on Twitter, writing: ‘C’mon thought you knew me better than this.. Would never get anyone fired over an autograph. 1st I heard of this was on twitter. #hurtful.’
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
Don’t be fooled by the rocks that I got
I’m still, I’m still Jenny from the block
Used to have a little, now I have a lot
No matter where I go, I know where I came from (from the Bronx!)
LOL!
Ahaha, good one! 😉
LMAO, if i was Jlo i’d fire Smartass..yo, use Joe Simpson’s gay rumors as a cautionary tale, Casper was already subject to some shady whispers, paying with your “hard earned”(heheheheheh) money….just sayin’, hon…venting on a misguided maid is not nice.
Not a J Lo fan but I seriously doubt she even knew the woman had asked. What sounds like happened is the woman knocked, her assistants answered, turned her away and then complained to the concierge. The concierge told the manager and the maid was fired. When you read the article, it’s pretty clear J Lo had nothing to do with this.
I’m kind of surprised anyone would care enough about her to want her autograph. JMO.
ha! exactly what I thought.
+1
Meh even if it was true I believe high-end hotels make their employees sign contracts so its not really the star’s fault if a hotel enforces their policies.
Yeah, I doubt JLo went out of her way to talk to the hotel manager and complain about a maid that she did not even speak to herself. Most likely her manager/assistant complained and the hotel fired her, as per her contract.
I agree. Many high end hotels would have taken the same action if they caught wind of it.
in passing is one thing – but knocking on doors?? cray-cray, UNCOOL, and unacceptable. i’d most certainly complain to mngmnt to let them know what occurred. hotel was responsible in firing this person – they’re a liability. only an idiot would do that.
I just don’t see her being the type to get a maid fired…I’m not a Jlo fan but she doesn’t strike me like that…but what do I know.
She’s a total diva who thinks she’s a superstar… this is EXACTLY how I imagine Jennifer Lopez would act.
+1
I’m glad the maid was able to quickly find other employment.
Can we talk about the horror that is pic #2? What is it with fading pop stars and their need to show us as much of the cooch as possible?
I know! At least she is wearing underwear!
Not that I wanted to see it…
I work for an airline and I wouldn’t ever degrade myself to ask for anyone’s autograph or photo. But, I’m Irish and as a rule we don’t really ever want to give anyone recognition. Hence the fact so many famous people live and holiday in Ireland because we don’t fawn over them (usually) However, Jenny from the block wouldn’t be where she is without fans and it wouldn’t have hurt her to show some graciousness. It only takes a second to be decent. The time will come when she will wish someone cared enough to even recognize her.
Yes, what IS the deal with autographs anyway?! I have people I admire too, but what am I going to do with a piece paper with their name?
Thank You!… I’ve absolutely never gotten the whole autograph thing. And the fawning. And the pictures. It just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not like these people are your friends. Or want to be your friend.
In these pics Jennifer looks like the mom and Casper looks like her son
It is an excuse to be close to them for a couple of sec, maybe even talk a little bit.
I understand wanting a picture with a celebrity a little bit more than having his signature on a piece of paper.
I have always thought the same thing, even when I was a kid and had crushes on singers or actors. The only reason I’d consider asking for an autograph is if I met someone who will likely be historically significant–I might want an autograph from them, but then I’d have it displayed in something that would keep it preserved.
I worked for an airline for 7 years and ran into some celebrities, mostly D list…lol. But I acted like I didn’t know who they were. I don’t know if there is a celebrity out there that would make me giddy. Maybe Meryl Streep. But I still wouldn’t want an autograph!
Any stories? Who’s nice? Who’s high maintenance?
I totally believe she did it but the maid was wrong (one of the first rules in hotel business is not to bother the guests).
JLo is a diva to the extreme, but I doubt she even knew about this happening or would bother to take the time herself to complain.
It does sound like the maid violated her contract. I feel bad for her, but she made the choice to do it.
Another German story:
There was a staff member in a nursing home who packed some leftovers and intended to take them home. She got fired too. It was stated in her contract: food not to be taken.
On the surface it seems an overreaction but on the other side she signed the conditions and should know better.
BTW, I’ll complain too if I’m disturbed in my room this way.
This lazy and overly-strict policy is applied to many corporate environments and all it really does at the end of the day is ensure a lot of perfectly good food and other products get wasted and end up in landfill. I do not agree with it. It is not difficult to differentiate between salvaging waste and theft.
But how are you going to check if the staff doesn’t steal from the portions BEFORE they are delivered if there are no clear rules? I know it’s a harsh measure but it saves a lot of supervision I guess.
It is not that easy to fire someone in germany as there are some laws to protect employees who worked for the same company for a longer time (> 10 years). Or to protect employees who fell ill (we had a kindergarten teacher who was ill every quarter for several weeks – but no longer as 5 weeks on a time. After 6 weeks you can ask the city job agency for an replacement… )
So, if you want to get rid of an old, faithfull employee, you have to cling to some totally BS reasons that fill a certain law hole. This is not about sacred leftovers. This is about evil job management.
There have been several of these cases (another one was about a cashier in a Walmart-like shop who was fired for two lost Bons (Return/Recycle)! Worth 1,30 Euro! As in 1.66 Dollars! She worked for this company for over 15 years, and they just wanted her to go.
But you know what? She didn’t liked it, went to court, went to the next-higher court, got her right- and is back to work at her old company! With a nice little “compensation for personal suffering”.
She is now in the union.
(http://www.stern.de/panorama/pfandbon-urteil-kassiererin-geht-bis-nach-karlsruhe-659052.html)
I’ve heard about the cashier case too. I bet too that her job has turned to worse once she’s not in the news. In Germany it’s not easy only on paper not to get sacked. I know of a teacher (pretty cemented position I’d say) that was removed from position (classified again?), moved around different schools ets. till she left on her own. Her bosses could not fire her outright but made her leave non the less.
If a person is constantly sick on the job, the employer has every right to decide whether that person is deemed competent enough for the work. Employment is not some paid vacation with occasional paperwork tossed in.
As to Wal Mart and the rest….no good employer is going to fire someone who is outstanding unless there are real turf wars going on and that would usually be upper management….But in general an “old faithful” employee will not be let go if he or she is good.
Sometimes employees are very lazy or incompetent and deserve the boot. No one is “owed” a job and the entitlement attitudes today are really extreme
Oh common, I could easily see JLo side, why the f would she bother getting this woman fired, she probably didn’t even know she was asked for autograph. This is hotel policy, and honestly if she ranged the bell (?!) I see that as harassment. Imagine if the paparazzi sitting in front of someone’s mansion hit the bell for a picture?
Someone had to call the management to report the maid. She didn’t report herself. J.Lo and her people had to know this was bad P.R. Just say no to the maid don’t call to get her fired.
The maid shouldn’t have knocked on the door asking for an autograph. It’s beyond unprofessional. I don’t blame JLo’s people for complaining to the management. What happened to the maid as a result was the employers decision…not JLo’s.
I’d be pissed off if someone knocked on my door wanting an autograph, surely even celebrities are allowed to be in their hotel room and have some privacy…
I barely even answer my phone because I get irritated when I just want peace and quiet.
^^ this
Agreed.
This was totally deliberate on the part of the maid and totally out of order. Can you imagine if every hotel employee decided to do the same thing?!
The maid was unprofessional and she got what she deserved.
I’m not Irish but I wouldn’t recognize them either. It’s not my style. I don’t know if she did this or not, although I doubt she cares enough to do it.
If it came to the hotel’s attention at all they would have had to fire her. I’m sure hotel staff are not allowed to pester guests for their autographs.
Just last night on twitter she said that it isn’t true.
I don’t believe her phony axs as far as I could throw her. Do I think she purposely went out of her way to get this lady fired? I’m not sure. But I don’t think she stipulated that the lady should just be reprimanded. I think she knew under the circumstances, they would take it as far as terminating the maid without any warning, because she’s a celebrity. Hotel administration would want to appease her and have her come back, by making sure miss “fan girl” maid is no longer working at that hotel.
I work in a higher end hotel as a chamber maid, at least in my place of work the guest is always right. Even if they are standing there cussing you out telling you what a failure as a human being you are. Now, I’ve had the owner staying on my floor in one of my bigger rooms for an entire month while his place was being renivated. I can bot tell you the amount if work I had to put in, with supervisors checking to make sure it was perfect. So, honestly all it would of taken is one call from her, complaining about pretty much anything and the girl would of at best been reprimanded, or completely let go.
Melissa, you have a tough job and I hope you are decently paid and acknowledged for your efforts. I find it astounding though that hotel guests would have the audacity to shout at and abuse you. That is so unacceptable. Money can’t buy class though I suppose. Some people will never know how to behave sadly.
When I worked as a cashier at the largest grocery chain in Canada the customer was always right no matter how much abuse they screamed at you.
They didn’t even do anything when I saw a customer literally gnash her teeth in another cashier’s face and yanked things out of her hands.
I have had customers yell personal insults at me in front of dozens of people and throw items at me and I was still the one who got bitched out for the situation.
Yeah I don’t think she got her fired either. Its like when you’re at a restaurant and your server fucks up big time so you say something and the manager overreacts and yellls at the server or even fires him/her. Like, you didn’t want the server fired but you don’t know what the restaurant’s policy is.
Some years ago when I lived in NYC I was having dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant and I witnessed a waitress being bawled out by the manager. She was trembling and started to cry. It was done quite publicly. I got up, walked over and told the manager his behaviour was appallingly unprofessional, that abusing a staff member was an unacceptable way to conduct business, and if he had a problem a discreet word in a private location would have been sufficient. I threw my dollars for the bill at his feet and declared loudly to the whole restaurant that I would never return to such a vile establishment and exited stage left.
5 minutes later I was mugged at gunpoint! Ironic to say the least.
Did you ever get the poor manager’s point of view? Like maybe this bawling employee had cost the restaurant several clients through her behavior? Like maybe she was “texting” all evening instead of tending to her duties?
His behavior was not proper, his reprimanding of her, for whatever reason, should have been done in private, agreed. But get the other side of the story first before you play the Holier than Thou crusader
@Anna, I’d rather be a holier than thou crusader than accept hollering and shouting at and abusing another person in their workplace as permissible. I’m glad I don’t work with you if that is your attitude.
Off topic of the maid thing but can anyone tell me what the big deal is about this Casper Smart guy? He looks like he has face of a 6 yr old, and those suuuuuper lame hipster glasses? OMG I’m so tired of the black-framed hipster glasses!!! You don’t look cool or retro or smart, you look trite and cliched.
Even IF you think the maid was wrong, guest is always right, etc., JLo is still a C-U-Next-Tuesday in this scenario, and I do believe it because I’ve met her and her diva game is second only to Madonna and Mariah. Disgusting. Classless. Completely ungrateful for what she has.
She may be an insufferable diva, but complaining about a hotel worker actually knocking on her door to ask for an autograph is reasonable, imo. As someone who just 5 months ago had been out of work for almost 2 years, I hate to hear of anyone losing their job, but the maid was in the wrong. If it was her employer’s policy to terminate such behavior…then it is what it is.
I don’t put anything past JLo at this point. In order for her manager or her assistant or anyone to report it to the managers of the hotel, they would HAVE to run it by JLo first and see if she agrees or what she’d rather do. I don’t doubt that she bitched about it but I don’t think she intentionally wanted to get the maid fired. But for someone who claims to have come from nothing and worked hard to get where she is etc. the least she could have done was sign the piece of paper and let it go. These fans ‘bothering’ her, are the reason she is where she is. The last thing she’d need is a no body speaking out against her and making people aware of what did or didn’t happen because it will harm her ‘rep’ in one way or another.
Her manager or assistant or whomever would not have had to run it past JLo in order to pull the trigger on the complaint. Their job is to run interference to make sure their boss is not troubled with trivial details. They could (and probably did) complain to the hotel without JLo ever knowing about the situation at all.
Really? I interned for a while for a ‘musician’ and was told you constantly have to run decisions by him, even if it’s ordering him lunch. I guess depends on the person.
I agree, it’s totally against policy for workers to ask for autographs….however, I CAN’T STAND Lopez, so I really don’t care. I consider her almost talentless and a famewhore to the max. She has a terrible voice. I can’t imagine wanting to see her squirm around on stage in all her costumes, sorry, gag….
The report said that she complained not that she asked the maid to be fired. Maybe that was the company’s decision when dealing with the complaint.
I’m a little bit confused: Did this happen in Berlin or in Duesseldorf?
These are two very different cities. One with a population around 592.393 (Düesseldorf isn’t called “Dorf” as in “village” for nothing) and one with a population around 3.515.473 … and yes, the bigger one is a little more relaxed when it comes to famous faces.
What a shameful thing to do in my opinion. It’s a scribble, it is like a few seconds out of her life and that’s it. Sorry Jen, but you were out of line, poorly done I say. Bitch.
Talentless and disgusting. I have no idea how this fat thing is famous.
The maid should have known better as I am sure she was train not to do that. That being said, J Lo should have been more understanding.
Your quote says it was Dusseldorf, you write it’s Berlin. Not the same cities.
I noticed this as well (see comment 22.), but it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.
This is a nice (maybe untrue) story about JLo bitching in a far, far away city .. could also be Timbuktu. (So to say, this is an american gossip site,)
It is interesting how many europeans bich about the (lack of) knowledge american provide about european cities and countrys. But to be honest, I for myself didn’t know ALL 50 states (and their flag/symbol/largest cities/capital/short-history). And I doubt that many europeans differ here!
That was, until Tuesday, when I followed the election news-Ticker with plenty of time and wikipedia by my side … Now I’m a bit smarter and hopefully less arrogant.
I’m very much NOT a fan of J. Blow, but It’s quite possible her staff complained. I’ve been around people with full entourages and the managers, etc, have been way more demanding and ridiculous “on behalf” of their employer without the employer knowing about it.
I believe if only because her tweet. This poor lady loses her job but my feelings are hurt.
TMZ
A rep for the hotel has also released a statement …saying, “Fact is [the maid] did not at any time have direct or personal contact with Jennifer Lopez.. At no time, either Mrs. Lopez personally, or her staff, or the Hotel, asked for the termination of [the maid’s] contract.”
The statement continues, “The group was by any account pleased with the hotel and its services and was very pleasant, friendly and courteous.”
http://www.tmz.com/2012/11/07/jennifer-lopez-maid-fired-hotel-germany/#ixzz2BkyOkqlC