Janet Charlton reported that Tyra Banks didn’t give her talk show staff any kind of Christmas bonus and that she had the holiday office party at a dive bar. Instead of serving food, she showed up with a guy dressed in a santa suit toting cold McDonald’s cheeseburgers and then took off. Staff got predictably wasted, and an ambulance had to be called after a woman was injured falling on the street. There was also a drunken brawl. The National Enquirer has more details, and they confirm Charlton’s story.

The night got off to a bad start after the employees arrived at the [Christmas] bash, held December 6 at Pianos, a Manhattan dive bar.

“First there was no food and guests began drinking heavily. Soon everyone was drunk,” another insider said.

Tyra showed up late, saying she was on her way to Italy.

“She told staffers, who relocated from LA to NY for her: ‘I want to thank you guys for working so hard. I have a special guests – here’s Santa!'”

According to an insider, the staff rushed over to Santa expecting to be handed a Christmas bonus. Instead, they were served dinner – burgers from McDonald’s!”

Things went downhill from there.

“People were getting sick on the dance floor. Then drunken fights started breaking out! It was a complete fiasco!” the source said.

A Pianos bartender told The Enquirer: “After Tyra left, some guys had a fight in the room and then a female member of the group fell outside and broke three of her teeth on the sidewalk. An ambulance had to be called for her.”

“When we went upstairs to clean up, there were McDonald’s burger wrappers all over the place.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 7, 2008]

In case you wonder if either of these stories is fabricated, In Touch has confirmation from Tyra’s PR person that McDonald’s was served at the Christmas party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that:

A rep for Tyra says the [McDonalds] burgers weren’t meant as gifts. “It is not true,” the rep tells In Touch. “Cheeseburgers were provided as a late-night snack for the staff at the party.”

[From In Touch, print edition, January 7, 2008]

So Tyra Banks’ PR person doesn’t say she did give staff bonuses, or that they didn’t have their Christmas party at a bar, just that the burgers weren’t intended as their Christmas gifts. It sounds to me like Tyra showed up with McDonalds as reported and that she stiffed her staff on Christmas. Janet Charlton also reported that Tyra received a whopping $30 million for moving from LA to NY. You think she could arrange for the people who moved to keep working on her show to get a small piece of that.