‘Hunger Games’ actress Alison McDaniel files $3.3M harassment suit against country club boss: report
Actress Alison McDaniel, best known for her small role in “The Hunger Games,” has filed a $3.3 million lawsuit against the owner of one of the top private clubs in the US, alleging he told her he would even have sex with her corpse, according to a report.
In documents obtained by The Boston Globe, McDaniel claims The Preserve Sporting Club and Residences honcho Paul Mihailides made the threat to rape her dead body after she was a no-show at the company’s holiday party in Richmond, Rhode Island.
McDaniel alleged that Mihailides told her, “I’m glad you didn’t die from your asthma attack. I would still have sex with you as long as your body wasn’t cold yet,” when she called in sick to the bash.
McDaniel, who hails from NYC, claims that she would be subject to sexual harassment at the hands of Mihailides on several occasions, and claims that the top dog would often try to forcefully kiss her, touch her, and stare at her with “suggestive overtones.”
In her lawsuit, she claims he tried to kiss her on the lips “multiple times,” before introducing her to others as his “future ex-wife” and “girlfriend,” according to McDaniel’s attorney Mark Gagliardi.
The allegations were vehemently denied by attorney Nicole Benjamin, representing The Preserve, who said the club plans to fire back with a countersuit.
“Sexual harassment in the workplace is unacceptable at any level and The Preserve holds all who work there in any capacity to a high standard,” Benjamin said in a statement to The Boston Globe. “It is important to keep in mind a lawsuit is not made of facts, but rather allegations that must be proven.”
Benjamin added that Mihailides is “confident that a jury will ultimately reject the allegations.”
McDaniel, who dabbled in acting for commercials before starring in the soap “Guiding Light” and later “Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” raked in $6,000 a month as an influencer for the country club.
In her filing, she claims that the sexual harassment spilled over into text conversations, as she alleged that Mihailides would often send her inappropriate messages.
The actress, who was hired by The Preserve in Dec. 2019, alleged that after she texted the club honcho in July 2021 to thank him for an unrelated matter, she received a message from him that read, “Do kisses come after that?”
Elsewhere, she claims that Mihailides allegedly told her in Oct. 2021 that he was a “good lover,” and that if she “wasn’t such a prude, [her] life could get a lot better.”
She also claimed that Mihailides’ wife was aware of his alleged antics, and even asked her in front of others, “Have you ever had to deal with sexual harassment at work besides from my husband?”
According to the lawsuit, it’s not the first time McDaniel has accused Mihailides of inappropriate behavior.
In a now-deleted Instagram post from March 2022 cited in the suit, the actress slammed him for fueling a “sexually harassing environment.”
Later that year, she filed a discrimination charge with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — however, the commission ultimately dismissed her claims, the club claimed at the time.
She left the club, where joining fees can reach an eye-watering $300,000, in Feb. 2022 after a little over two years.
The country club was featured in Forbes, which named it one of the top private clubs of 2022 in the US.
The Post has reached out to The Preserve for comment.
