As the 2020 Emmy nominations loom, multiple Emmy winner and former longtime The Simpsons composer Alf Clausen has called out Disney, 20th Century Fox TV and Films and James L. Brooks’ Gracie Films for their alleged “lies and deceit” over his 2017 termination.
“Through Defendants’ own documents and subterfuge of lies, Mr. Clausen can demonstrate that the decision to terminate his lengthy employment was not only unrelated to the furtherance of free speech, but motivated by discriminatory animus, in an effort to avoid having to accommodate an old, ailing employee,” attorneys for Clausen declared in opposition paperwork to the defendants’ collective effort to see the August 2019-filed age-discrimination case tossed.
“Since the lenient anti-SLAPP standards now require this Court to accept Mr. Clausen’s evidence as true and draw all reasonable inferences therefrom in his favor, Defendants’ Motion must be denied,” the July 22 filing adds (read it here).
Headed next to a likely remote hearing August 5 before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Stern, the next step will be to sift through the reasons offered by both sides. At the heart of that meet-up will be to determine whether the now 79-year-old Clausen was axed after almost 30 years on the animated series “a month after telling Fox he had Parkinson’s disease” because of his condition or not.
