From John Marzulli at the Daily News:
They ‘View’ed me as too old: lawsuit
A 63-year-old former producer for ABC’s “The View” claims in an age discrimination lawsuit the show ordered her to relocate to Los Angeles as a pretext to get rid of her.
Bernadette Piccolomini, who had been producing daytime promotions for the gabfest, says in a Brooklyn Federal Court suit that her job is now being performed by younger and less-experienced employees.
Piccolomini also claims she was subjected to screaming tirades by her supervisor before she left the show last November.
What drew me to this item was the plaintiff’s last name. The Piccolominis were the dominant family in Renaissance Siena. I sort of know them well, because one of them became a pope (Pius II), who wrote a marvelous autobiography couched in the third person (so he could brag endlessly about himself and relate his randy, pre-papal adventures) and razed a hilltop Tuscan town in order to rebuild it as Pienza (named after him). It was meant to be and still is the ideal Renaissance city and is full of innovative architecture. That is, “innovative” to a Renaissance person, yet still wondrous to us.
Pienza is also full of great, great cheese. One such cheese, Corsignano, is occasionally available here, in the top cheese markets. Its name is the pre-Pienza name of the town.
Pienza is so gorgeous, it has starred in movies − “The English Patient” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” both used it as a location.
Moreover, it was a Piccolomini, a former student, who, despite being a churchman himself, gave sanctuary and succor to Galileo after his heresy trial.
I am very fond of the radical Piccolominis, of their private town, of women’s rights, and of such lawsuits, so I wish Ms. Bernadette very well.