Molly Ringwald Divorcing
By Julie Keller E!

If Molly Ringwald thought she left relationship angst behind her in her teens, she was mistaken.

The erstwhile Brat Packer star of Pretty in Pink and Breakfast Club is heading for Splitsville from her husband of three years in what looks like a rather difficult breakup. According to a report on ET Online, Ringwald said she is leaving her French novelist hubby Valery Lameigne`re due to "cruel and inhuman treatment."

The 34-year-old redhead seems to want to end her marriage quickly and wave au revoir to Lameigne`re, seeking no alimony, financial settlement nor possessions from their home in Bordeaux, France, according to the Website.

No further details were immediately available.

The split comes as a surprise, as the courtship and marriage of the '80s drama queen and her French import seemed like something out of, well, a John Hughes movie.

Ringwald, who was red-hot in the 1980s as the pouty member of the Brat Pack, had seen her career nosedive into a string of forgettable late-'90s TV movies and straight-to-video projects. She met Lameigne`re and, after an eight-year engagement, decided to live happily ever after in France (she did keep an apartment in New York as her U.S. home base).

The couple made it official in July of 1999 in a ceremony at the groom's family cabin in the seaside Bordeaux village of Arcachon. Ringwald floated across a bay to the flower-laden, paper-lantern-lit ceremony aboard a local boat amid cheers of friends, family and the locals, as described by InStyle.

She subsequently remained off the Hollywood radar for a couple years, appearing only briefly in bit parts here and there, preferring to spend her time with her personal Prince Charming and enjoying the obscurity of France.

"I am recognized, but obviously not as much as in America," she told E! Online in 2001. "But even if the French recognize a celebrity, they are much less likely to approach them. It's a cultural thing--and something that makes it possible for me to lead a somewhat normal life."

With that "somewhat normal life" now ending, don't think Ringwald is holed up in France crying in her croissant or moping a` la Sixteen Candles' Samantha Baker. She is keeping herself occupied Stateside as Sally Bowles in the hit Broadway musical revival Cabaret.

Polo says dress code not forced
From The San Francisco Chronicle.

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., in a court filing, has denied allegations that it requires store employees to buy and wear the company's clothing at work -- a common retail industry practice that the California Labor Commission considers illegal.

The New York company, responding to a Sept. 18 federal lawsuit in San Francisco, disputes allegations that employees are required to buy Polo-brand outfits or accessories as a condition of keeping their jobs.

That's what Polo employee Toni Young, 31, complained she has been forced to do since she took a sales job at Polo's Post Street store in 1997.

Young, who still works at the store, said she has logged more than $35,000 in Polo purchases as a result of the alleged policy and her desire to keep her job. She said she spent $7,000 of her $22,000 gross salary last year to meet work wardrobe requirements.

Polo, however, said in its response filed Monday that its dress code -- which it said applies to some employees but did not say which ones -- does not subject them to clothing inspections at work, as claimed in Young's lawsuit.

Polo also said its policy does not, as claimed, require employees to purchase the company's latest seasonal fashions to avoid reprimands or written warnings.

Polo denied having a "uniform requirement" -- language that speaks directly to provisions of the California Labor Code and the state's Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders prohibiting employers from forcing employees to pay for their own uniforms.

Meanwhile, he said, Polo employees who have contacted the attorneys in connection with the lawsuit have said that in recent weeks, the retailer has appeared to relax its policy in that stores have not required employees to purchase Polo clothes.

The attorneys are seeking class-action status and unspecified damages in the lawsuit. The suit claims that Polo's dress code also violates antitrust law, by making Polo employees captive buyers and thereby giving Polo an unfair competitive advantage.

A Polo spokeswoman in New York declined comment on the lawsuit or Polo's dress-code policy.

Young, who is African American, also has filed an employment discrimination lawsuit in state court, alleging biased treatment against her by Polo. Polo has challenged the legal grounds for the discrimination allegations.
Earlier posts: Racial tension at Ralph Lauren