from www.the dailymail.co.uk – An entertainment industry big wig with a gold-plated resume has reportedly resigned in the wake of pornographic photos of him emerging online and a work-related sexual harassment suit despite a sex-addicition rehab stint ten years prior.
Richard Nanula holds a Harvard MBA. He held top titles at Disney and biotech juggernaut Amgen. Currently, he sits as chairman of the board of Miramax.
And though the suave wheeler-dealer has made millions for his companies, his reportedly unseemly predilections may prove his undoing.
Variety reported June 26 that website TheDirty.com had published photos it claimed showed Nanula engaged in sex acts with a porn star [Wickes Pictures’ contract girl, Samantha Saint].
The photos have since been taken down, but remained viewable at a site called www.PornNewsToday.com.
Sources for Variety said the photos were the reason for the leave of absence Nanula recently took from Miramax and Colony Capital, which owns a large stake in the entertainment group.
One of Colony Capital’s largest investors, it should be noted, is Qatar Holding, the sovereign wealth fund of the deeply conservative Muslim country.
‘Richard Nanula has taken a leave of absence from Colony and Miramax for personal reasons,’ Lisa Baker, a publicist with Owen Blicksilver PR, which reps Colony, told Variety.
Now, the New York Post is reporting that a sexual harassment suit may be an additional reason for Nanula’s leave of absence.
Additionally, says the Post, that leave of absence is actually a permanent vacation. However, Colony Capital failed to substantiate the Post’s tip that Nanula has resigned.
‘Based on our investigation,’ a Colony rep told Page Six, ‘these matters are personal to Mr. Nanula, and it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.’
The harassment suit centers on a paralegal at Colony named Stephanie Shaw, who claims Nanula groped her buttocks in an ‘unwelcome, extreme, and offensive’ way back in early 2012 and filed suit in a Los Angeles court.
Shaw, who was fired after less than a year with the company, is also alleging wrongful termination, among other wrongdoings.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first bit of funny business the executive has been accused of.
Back in 2005, Nanula’s then wife Tracey filed for divorce. According to court papers, Tracey claimed that she had found that Nanula had spent as much as $10,000 on prostitutes and traced his infidelities back to 2001.
Tracey also indicated in her filing that Nanula had, at one time, completed a 6-day rehab stint for sex addiction that he subsequently claimed had cured him.
Tracey Nanula would not comment on the case.
The sexual harassment issue is now in binding arbitration, in which Shaw is seeking unspecified damages.
MailOnline reached out to both Miramax and Colony Capital, though neither had responded as of Sunday afternoon.