Gloria Rachel Allred (née Bloom; born July 3, 1941) is an American attorney known for taking high-profile and often controversial cases, particularly those involving feminist causes.
[9] After graduating from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, she attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she met her first husband, Peyton Huddleston Bray Jr.
[31] In 1979, Allred represented seven children and their parents in a lawsuit against the Sav-On Drugstore chain to stop the store from designating separate sections for boys' and girls' toys.
[32] In 1981, while California State Senator John G. Schmitz was presiding over hearings on outlawing abortion, Allred presented him with a chastity belt.
[39] In 1983, Allred represented lesbian activists Deborah Johnson and Zandra Rolón in their lawsuit against the owner of a Los Angeles restaurant, Papa Choux, after he denied them service in a booth reserved for "romantic couples".
[42] Rather than serve LGBT couples, the restaurant decided to eliminate the booths altogether, and took out newspaper ads inviting the public to a "Wake for Romance" event.
In August 1997, she represented model Kelly Fisher[45] when she sued Dodi Fayed for allegedly breaking off their engagement to begin his highly publicized relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales.
[citation needed] Allred represented Melrose Place actress Hunter Tylo in 1997 when producer Aaron Spelling fired her because she was pregnant.
[52] Later in 2002, Allred represented the family of Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen who was brutally beaten to death when it was learned that she had been assigned male at birth.
[55] She represented three former Circuit City employees on behalf of a large plaintiff class in an age discrimination lawsuit against that company after it fired 3,400 workers nationwide in April 2007.
[56] In a March 2008 complaint against the TSA, Allred represented a client who was given pliers and told to remove her nipple rings at a Lubbock, Texas, airport.
[63] On May 14, 2010, in a news conference held at Allred's office, English actress Charlotte Lewis alleged that director Roman Polanski had sexually abused her in his Paris apartment when she was 16.
[10] In August 2010, Allred represented Jodie Fisher, whose sexual harassment claim revealed expense-account irregularities that led to the resignation of HP CEO Mark Hurd.
[65] Allred was visible in the 2010 California gubernatorial race, going public as the lawyer for Nicky Diaz, a former domestic worker for Republican nominee Meg Whitman.
[66] On April 27, 2011, Allred appeared at a press conference with the family of Justin Quinn, who was allegedly threatened at a San Francisco Giants baseball game by Braves coach Roger McDowell.
[67][68] On October 18, 2011, Allred won court approval to represent nine former cocktail waitresses who were fired from their jobs at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey after they "did not look good enough" in new uniforms modeled after 1920s-era Flapper outfits.
Resorts had sought to bar Allred from the discrimination lawsuit, arguing in court papers that her "flamboyant and headline-grabbing antics" would add nothing to the case.
[69] On March 9, 2012, Allred called for an investigation into whether radio host Rush Limbaugh should be prosecuted in Florida under a 19th-century law against "maliciously imputing to [any woman] a want of chastity" for derogatory remarks he made regarding Sandra Fluke, who testified before House Democrats to advocate for free birth control.
Allred commented: "Mr. Limbaugh targeted his attack on a young law student who was simply exercising her free speech and her right to testify before congress on a very important issue to millions of American women and he vilified her.
[70] Also in 2012, Allred took on the case of Jenna Talackova, a Canadian transgender woman who was challenging her disqualification from the Miss Universe Canada pageant for not being a "naturally born" female.
[72] On October 4, 2013, Allred was hired by the wife of critically injured motorcyclist Edwin Mieses, who was run over by Alexian Lien during the Hollywood Stuntz gang assault.
Allred was vocal in her dislike of a proposed 2017 California bill that would ban non-disclosure clauses in agreements that silence victims of sexual harassment or assault.
[79][80] In February 2020, Allred hired an American-style school bus to encourage Prince Andrew to respond to the FBI about the sexual misconduct allegations surrounding him.
The school bus was covered with an advertisement and placed outside of Buckingham Palace, and included photographs of the Duke of York and a message urging him to answer questions surrounding the controversy.
[87] On March 28, 2000, Allred was parodied on the animated TV show Family Guy, by a character named "Gloria Ironbox", voiced by Candice Bergen, in an episode titled "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar".
In 2012, The Atlantic described her as "the ambulance chaser of feminism" after she defended two men involved in a sexual battery lawsuit against actor John Travolta.
In the 2001 film Rat Race, she first appeared after the character Blaine Cody (Vince Vieluf) was about to step on a shot glass for a purported insurance scam.
Later in the film, character Enrico is run over by an ambulance driven by Zack, a medical supply driver; to the fear of the latter, Allred witnesses the accident and yells "I saw the whole thing".