EXCLUSIVE: Sandra Bernhard’s manager claims actress cheated charities

Comic and actress Sandra Bernhard has been sued by her former long-term manager, who has accused her of cheating charities with phony invoices, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

James Sliman, who worked with the ‘difficult’ star for nearly 11 years, alleges in a lawsuit filed in Kings County, New York, she forced him into doing ‘many unscrupulous, questionable and embarrassing things’ as part of a ‘hostile’ work environment.

He alleges Bernhard – who claimed she and Madonna were lovers when they were both guests on Late Night with David Letterman – cheated venues out of their cut of merchandising sales at her live performances and sent ‘phony invoices’ to bump up her interview fees, according to a New York court filing obtained by DailyMail.com.

The showbiz management veteran said he was fired by the 68-year-old star of FX drama POSE in July after she ‘could not admit that her live shows were now selling poorly and her asking fees were too high’.

‘Heartbroken’ Sliman – who has told DailyMail.com Bernhard used him as shoulder to cry on during their long business relationship – is demanding $250,000 for an alleged breach of a verbal contract, wrongful termination and commissions and fees he says he is owed.

Of the financial allegations, he tells the court: ‘In dozens of instances, maybe hundreds, Miss Bernhard coerced me into sending phony invoices from her to charity organizations, LGBT charity organizations, television shows, documentary filmmakers etc.. who wanted to interview her.

‘Whether or not she was already being paid a fee, she would insist I get them to also cover costs of her hair and make-up people.

‘When they agreed, she would tell me to say it cost $1,000 when it was really only $2-300.

‘I would send the invoices and she would pocket the money. This at times actually became a small way she could supplement her income. This from a woman who everyone knows is a multi-millionaire.’

He continues: ‘She has various ways of trying not to pay venues 20 percent of her merchandise sales, which is standard.

‘She would simply refuse to pay it, or tell them they could only have 10 percent or just lie about how much she sold. Since it was cash only, this was very easy for her. And she would tell me she never reported that money to her accountants.

‘This behavior at times caused major issues with specific venues. Then I would have to step in and smooth it over.

‘She has repeatedly coerced me into her money making schemes, so she can literally pocket as little as a couple hundred dollars or thousands,’ Sliman claimed at the top of his legal complaint filed to Kings County Superior Court in Brooklyn on July 21.

Bernhard – who played bisexual Nancy Bartlett in ABC sitcom Roseanne for six years – hired Sliman as her publicist in 2013.

But he alleges that she quickly ‘started asking more and more of me’ to include roles as ‘tour manager, personal assistant, travel agent, personal collection agency on her payments due, and about one year later, as actual manager of the live performance side of her career’.

‘She took extreme advantage of our business relationship and used me to do the work of up to four people’, he adds.

‘When we started in early 2013, Miss Bernhard also promised to raise my monthly publicity fee to the going rate when she got work on television shows.

‘These raises never happened, even when she got roles on Two Broke Girls (CBS), two seasons of POSE (FX) and American Horror Story (FX).’

Cracks in their professional relationship widened in the months leading to his firing during phone calls and emails in which they discussed ‘the poor way she had been treating me… thus having a very negative effect’.

He adds: ‘We had also been having conversations about her rapidly declining ticket sales at live performances in various cities around the country and why this was affecting my ability to set up more live shows for her at the high fees she was demanding.

‘When I tried talking to her openly and honestly about these issues and what we could do to overcome these issues…she always blamed the venues for her low ticket sales.

‘When I explained to her that was not the case, she accused me of siding with the venues and not her. She also accused me of bullying her and tried to control the narrative of our conversations by making these false remarks.

‘In reality, she responded this way because she could not admit that her live shows were selling poorly and her asking fees were too high. I was having a very hard time finding venues that wanted her.’

He recounts one alleged incident in Provincetown, Massachusetts, when, he says, ‘she accused the young girl selling for her of skimming $50 off the total, which did not happen.

‘She wanted the girl to give her the $50. The girl later started crying and I had to give her $50 of my own money to smooth it over.

‘Instances like this became a normal occurrence working with Miss Bernhard over many years, causing me a great deal of distress.’

Sliman also claims he ‘fought many, many battles’ for Bernhard ‘including dozens of times with producers and other staff people at SiriusXM Radio where she was unhappy with her treatment hosting her own radio show with them’.

He says: ‘Over the years, Miss Bernhard developed a long standing reputation as “difficult” among managers, agents and other representatives in the entertainment business.

‘Whenever these issues came up at various times, she always said it was because she “is a woman”. I have now realized that is not the reason at all and now her wrath was being directed at me.’

Sliman also tells the court: ‘I continued to do many jobs for Miss Bernhard over this 10-11 year period and a great many people are aware of the integral part I played in her career at this time

‘But, just in the last few months, when I started speaking my mind and telling her I wasn’t going to be a “yes man” she became very difficult to talk to and everything became an argument.

‘When I started honestly discussing the obstacles I was now having with setting up continued live performances for her, she would blame everyone else and could not discuss that maybe the problem was her.’

The ex-manager also claims Bernhard put intolerable pressure on him by asking him to ‘fire or threaten to fire various other representatives who were working with us at various times…this put me in a very uncomfortable position because I worked along with these people’.

Bernhard is due to play Palm Springs, California on October 16 and The Wallis performing arts center in Beverly Hills three days later. That is followed by her regular holidays booking at Joe’s Pub in New York City, starting December 26.

Her attorney Lawrence Kopeikin, based in Beverly Hills, California, said after being contacted by DailyMail.com about Sliman’s allegations: ‘Ms Bernhard has no comment at this time.’ 

Part of the money Sliman is claiming is for management commissions dating back to 2014 for the Joe’s Pub annual six-day runs.

‘I coordinated all aspects and every detail of the shows, negotiated the contracts, got her feeds raised each year and got ticket prices raised, all so she could make more money each year,’ says his complaint.

In a second filing on August 9, Sliman claimed Bernhard had been ‘holding the partial funds she owed me hostage and stated I would only get paid if I signed a four-page “settlement agreement”, which I initially refused to sign.’

He adds: ‘With my own bills piling up, I had no choice but to sign this agreement, which I was coerced into doing. I signed it under extreme duress and undue influence to get the money I was already owed.

‘I realized in the days that followed I should not have signed it at all and should still have been paid the money she owed me.’

Sliman says in the second document that Bernhard released a $4,800 three-month publicity maintenance fee and $1,500 commission on a performance she gave on July 28.

But he says he is still suing for other commissions and fees, including for the star’s upcoming holidays shows at Joe’s Pub, worth $13,000.

After filing his court papers, Sliman told DailyMail.com exclusively: ‘I feel used, very disappointed and hurt at what has happened. A little bit heartbroken.

‘I’m not naïve, I’ve worked with celebrities my entire adult life. I know it is what it is.

‘I know how fickle celebrities can be. But my relationship with Sandra was different. I spoke to her six or seven times a day.

‘Every time there was a problem in her life, even if it wasn’t business related, she would call to discuss it with me.

‘She would call me when she was feeling down about her career, and “oh my God, what should I do”? And I would be sympathetic and give her whatever advice I could. I thought we had a bond, she and I.

‘But in my opinion she turned out to be a very deceitful person, especially in the last couple of years.

Sliman alleged to DailyMail.com that he effectively revived Bernhard’s career after they met. ‘When I started it was, like, in the Bermuda Triangle,’ he said. ‘Personally I couldn’t believe she’d got to that point. I helped her get her career back on track.’

The showbiz veteran said the Hollywood writers’ strike this year focused Bernhard on striving for more live shows.

‘I had to tell her, Sandra, I’m up against some obstacles this time,’ he said.

‘In this past year, for five or six shows the promoter wanted to cancel because the advance ticket sales were so low. So I talked to her to try to figure a way around it.’

Sliman said ‘the real clincher’ was ‘the problem we had at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey, a beautiful legendary old theater booked’ for June 4.

‘I got her a show there in the small room upstairs which holds about 350 people. She only sold a total of 90 tickets. And that was a pattern in recent months.

‘They called me two weeks before and asked me to cancel it. We didn’t cancel because we had a contract. The show went ahead with just 90 tickets sold because the venue was honorable.

‘She got paid in full, but they lost their shirt. And when a venue like that loses their shirt, they’re not going to ask you back again. And little by little you alienate various venues around the country.’

On the day he was fired, Sliman told DailyMail.com Bernhard rang him using ‘a tone of voice like she was the happiest person in the world’.

‘She said, so listen, there’s going to be some changes, I brought on someone else, no publicity, you can finish up this week and we’re done.

‘My heart sank.’