Warning: Explicit language
Four Teamsters charged with threatening “Top Chef” producers surrounded host Padma Lakshmi’s car, growling, “That’s the pretty one. We want to smash her face in,” according to testimony Wednesday.
Four members of Local 25 in Boston are accused of trying to extort producers of the Bravo reality TV show for jobs in June 2014 – hurling racial and gay slurs at crew members including Lakshmi.
“They swarmed her vehicle and surrounded it. They were furious,” the show’s supervising producer Ellie Carbajal testified in Boston federal court, according to Deadline.
Carbajal recalled how one of the men had his face inches away from the passenger side window and told others about Lakshmi, “That’s the pretty one. We want to smash her face in.”
The men — John Fidler, Daniel Redmond, Robert Cafarelli and Michael Ross – maintain they were legally picketing outside a restaurant in the suburb of Milton where “Top Chef” was filming.
But prosecutors said they left Lakshmi “paralyzed with fear” and tried to extort jobs for “services not needed, not wanted and that others were already hired to perform.”
Lakshmi is expected to testify Thursday.
Carbajal also testified that Redmond allegedly called her a “c—t” and a “towelhead,” as seen in a disturbing video that was played for jurors in court.
“Your mama would be so proud,” Carbajal yelled on the video.
“At least I’m not a scab like you,” Redmond shouted back.
“They got in my face. I was scared,” Carbajal testified. “I couldn’t believe they were doing this. They were grown men.”
Police officers were on scene that day but were less than helpful – even though they later reported that tires on several production vehicles had been slashed.
“They said [the Teamsters] were within their rights,” Carbajal said.
Meanwhile, “Top Chef’s” former location manager Derek Cunningham said the harrowing ordeal left him fearing for his life – and forced him to sleep with a “knife and a hatchet” after being threatened by two of the Teamsters.
Cunningham testified that he received a “harassing” phone call from Cafarelli on June 5, 2014 – the same day the manager quit his “Top Chef” gig.
Cafarelli told him, “Quitting was the smartest thing you’ve done in 2014,” Cunningham said.
Fidler, Redmond, Cafarelli and Ross have pleaded not guilty. A fifth man, Mark Harrington, pleaded guilty in December to attempted extortion in exchange for six months of home confinement.