Mario Lopez left ‘Extra’ After Boss Threatened to “Me Too” Him and Expose Infidelities
https://www.thedailybeast.com/extra-boss-lisa-gregorisch-dempsey-runs-show-like-mafia-threatened-mario-lopez
From the article:
Mario Lopez had co-hosted Extra for ten years when he was in the midst of renegotiating his contract in 2018. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, the dialogue grew increasingly tense when it became apparent the TV star might bail for a competitor.
Before Lopez eventually bolted for top rival Access Hollywood, Gregorisch-Dempsey at one point told the former Saved by the Bell star and his manager Mark Schulman that she would leak personally damaging stories to the press about him in an effort to “ruin him,” four people familiar with a series of email and phone exchanges told The Daily Beast.
These insiders said that Gregorisch-Dempsey threatened Lopez with pushing out the negative press items, allegedly alluding to unsubstantiated rumors of infidelity or misconduct.
One current Extra employee recounted an email in which Gregorisch-Dempsey allegedly intimated to Lopez that she could “ruin” him if he did not re-sign with the program. Lopez “showed it to his manager, agent, and an attorney at his agent’s office,” the staffer said. “He told a lot of people about the email.”
Two additional sources familiar with the email confirmed that Gregorisch-Dempsey threatened Lopez if he left Extra, adding that the senior executive producer eventually apologized to the host as well as his wife.
Continued from the Article:
“That’s when Mario decided to leave,” claimed a current staffer with inside knowledge of the situation. “He told staff he couldn’t work with people like that. It is common knowledge among staff why Mario left: Lisa threatened him.”
Additionally, De Santis, the former Extra producer and Gregorisch-Dempsey’s nephew, recounted his aunt telling him about a phone call in which she told Lopez he was putting all of the show’s employees in jeopardy because NBC might not pick up Extra for another season if he left.
“Lisa told me she said some things (to Mario and his manager) she needed to apologize for and asked me to help her draft an apology to [Lopez’s wife] Courtney,” De Santis added.
Emails obtained and reviewed by The Daily Beast show Gregorisch-Dempsey apologizing directly to Schulman for a previous conversation, noting that her aggression was in part due to her belief that the show’s livelihood depended on Lopez remaining host.
“I thought about our conversation and I owe you an apology,” Gregorisch-Dempsey wrote to Schulman in early 2018. “I have and will always be ‘Team Mario.’ I have 120 people depending on Mario as our on air team leader for their livelihood. I will always fight for the show just as you are fighting for Mario’s best interest and I respect that.”
De Santis also claimed that he was tasked with drafting an apology on Gregorisch-Dempsey’s behalf to Lopez’s spouse. “After she made the threat to leak negative stories about Mario, Lisa asked me to help her draft an apology email to Mario’s wife Courtney,” he said. “Basically, Lisa was saying [to me] she wanted Mario to get #MeToo’d.”