Rob Lowe’s former nanny, Jessica Gibson, and her celebrity lawyer, Gloria Allred, were on the Today show this morning to give the nanny’s side of the story. 24 year-old Gibson worked for Lowe and his wife as a nanny for their two boys for 7 years, and even returned to work for the family twice. She left the job abruptly in February, and sent two text messages afterwards saying that it was just time for her to leave and that the Lowes didn’t do anything to prompt her departure. Lowe wrote last week that Gibson demanded $1.5 million in extortion money or “she will accuse us both of a vicious laundry list of false terribles.” He then preemptively sued Gibson and two other employees, saying they spread false information about him and his wife in violation of their confidentiality agreements. Lowe’s lawsuit did not give any specifics about the allegations against him.

Gibson has now filed her own lawsuit in which she lists the harassment she says she endured while working in Lowe’s household, including being touched inappropriately and seeing both Lowe and his wife Sheryl naked around the house:

Rob Lowe repeatedly exposed himself and inappropriately touched himself and his former nanny, she claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in a Santa Barbara, Calif. court.

Jessica Gibson, 24, worked for Lowe and his wife, Sheryl, off and on for seven years, according to the 18-page document. She quit on Feb. 24.

Lowe, 44, the lawsuit further alleges, “placed his hand inside Gibson’s pants” several times from about Sept. 2005 to around Jan. 2008. The actor also allegedly grabbed her buttocks without her consent around Dec. 2007, according to the filing….

In her legal papers, Gibson also made harassment claims against Sheryl, 46, claiming Lowe’s wife would walk around the house naked, make vulgar comments, and would discuss her sex life with Lowe to the nanny.

[From People.com]

On the Today Show, celebrity mouthpiece Allred dominated the conversation, and given how aggressive she was, and how triumphant Gibson looked, I found myself a bit skeptical about their side of the story. You want to give someone the benefit of the doubt, and sexual assault is a very serious thing. Given the details of this case, I just didn’t didn’t find the way they presented it all that convincing. It probably had more to do with Allred’s very dominant personality than anything else, and that’s unfortunate.

Gibson denied trying to extort money from blackmail the Lowes, as Lowe alleged in his article about her. Allred said their claims were “defamatory,” and that they were engaging in a “preemptive strike” against her, and that it was retaliation against her client’s claim of sexual harassment, which is illegal.

Meredith Viera asked Gibson why she kept working for the Lowes for seven years if she was being abused and harassed, and she said “I loved the children, I needed the job, I always thought it would get better, and I was scared.”

Viera asked Jessica about the e-mails that she sent after she left, and she wouldn’t talk about it. Viera again pressed “Jessica are you saying you didn’t write those e-mails in which you were saying you leaving had nothing to do with the Lowes?” and she didn’t answer and Allred said “We’re going to talk about that in the lawsuit, and why she did… she was in fear of them, she was trying to appease them. She was trying to get away.”

When Viera asked Gibson how she was coping, she said “I have a great team around me, and I just have to stand up and just fight.”

This case deserves a fair hearing, but this woman needs a normal lawyer who is going to accurately tell her side of the story in a believable way. Having Gloria Allred involved just makes it seem as if she wants it as high profile as possible, and that’s not doing her any favors. She also didn’t come across as convincing to me. That doesn’t mean she’s not telling the truth, just that she has to work on her public image if she’s going to start going on the talk shows.

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