Lady Gaga is back from the edge of trial.
The "Applause" artist has settled a lawsuit filed in 2011 by a former assistant who claimed that Mother Monster owed her almost $400,000 in overtime salary for 7,168 extra hours that she said were spent attending to Gaga's every need during her period of employment.
Terms of the settlement are being kept confidential and neither side's attorneys have commented. The case was scheduled to go to trial in New York on Nov. 4.
But Gaga didn't initially move toward an out-of-court agreement without showing her teeth.
"She's just—she thinks she's just like the queen of the universe," she fumed about plaintiff Jennifer L. O'Neill in a deposition taken in August 2012. "And you know what, she didn't want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I'm the queen of the universe every day."
"You don't get a schedule," she reportedly testified. "You don't get a schedule that is like you punch in and you can play...at your desk for four hours and then you punch out at the end of the day. This is when I need you, you're available."
U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe had set a trial date after ruling that being "on call" 24/7, as O'Neill referred to it in her suit, could potentially qualify for overtime compensation. The attorneys alerted him on Friday that they were close to a settlement.
Per Bloomberg.com, both parties filed a stipulated order informing him that they had settled on an undisclosed amount and requesting a dismissal with prejudice, meaning O'Neill can bring no other wage or overtime-related claims against Gaga.
