Things aren’t looking so great over at Interview magazine.
The nearly 50-year-old glossy is facing yet another lawsuit, this time from it’s now former editorial director Fabien Baron and his wife, stylist Ludivine Poiblanc, who claim they’re owed more than $600,000 for their consulting and styling work.
“Defendants have been completely derelict in fulfilling their legal requirement to remunerate Fabien and Baron Inc.,” the couple said in a complaint filed late Wednesday in Manhattan court. “Defendants’ actions demonstrate a total disregard for the legal obligations they assumed by employing Fabien, Baron Inc. and the many collaborators he recruited to produce the finest work possible.”
A spokeswoman for Baron declined to immediately comment beyond the complaint. A representative of Interview and its parent company Brant Publications, owned by billionaire Peter Brant, declined to immediately reached for comment.
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A source noted that the lack of payment led to Baron’s resignation and that a number of Interview contributors have also not been paid. Interview and Brant Publications have also yet to comment on this claim.
In the complaint, Baron said he’s made “numerous demands” for payments of many of his invoices, which date back to 2015, and last year, Interview president Kelly Brant, one of Peter Brant’s nine children, acknowledged the need for payment of just under $500,000 in invoices. She agreed that the company would start paying Baron in monthly installments of $10,000, but that allegedly has not occurred.
As for Poiblanc, who’s styled shoots for Dior, Vogue Australia and i-D, she’s allegedly owed about $66,000 for shoots she worked for Interview between 2015 and 2017.
Although Baron left his director role last month, Interview has yet to remove his name from its online masthead. Stylist Karl Templer, who earlier this year denied allegations of sexual misconduct against a model on set, is also still listed as creative director, despite having left weeks ago. So, it seems safe to say that Interview is operating with neither an editorial or creative director, the two top spots at the magazine.
And Baron’s lawsuit is not the only one Interview is dealing with. Former sales representative and eventually associate publisher Jane Katz last year sued the magazine for unpaid wages of more than $230,000, along with claims that she was unjustly fired. Dan Ragone, who was Interview’s president for six years, also sued in 2016 for allegedly unpaid wages of about $170,000 and that case is still working its way through the courts. Ragone last month was named president and chief financial officer of Daily Front Row.
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