Hot photog sues fashion bigwig over luring her into sex in return for job boost

NEW YORK - A hot photographer Maryam Sayigh is suing aristocratic fashion honcho Federico Pignatelli claiming he lured her into the sack with promises of being his No. 2 at one of the country’s largest photography studios.

Sayigh, whose website features suggestive snapshots of women in the nude, accused Pier 59 Studios bigwig Pignatelli of bedding her aboard his boat in the Mediterranean Sea after vowing to boost her career at the sprawling Chelsea Piers studio.

However, the Italian blueblood, whose ancient family has ties to Pope Innocenzo XII, fired back Monday, calling Sayigh a shakedown artist - and an “unattractive” one at that.

“She’s not the type of woman I would sleep with,” the New York Daily News quoted Pignatelli as saying.

“I have plenty of women I can sleep with, so why would I sleep with an employee?” he added.

Sayigh’s 2 million dollar suit portrays Pignatelli as a horndog who cut her duties at his fashion photo facilities when she tired of his raunchy talk and refused to act as his “madam.”

The 35-year-old former real estate agent did not return calls or emails, and her lawyer, Lewis Fischbein, declined to discuss the Manhattan Supreme Court case.

According to court papers, the sexual shenanigans occurred during a European jaunt in June 2008, shortly after Sayigh joined Pier 59 Studios as Pignatelli’s executive assistant and was put in charge of public relations and a redesign at the studios.

Almost immediately, Pignatelli, a 57-year-old former investment banker, insisted that she stay with him in a Saint-Tropez hotel room that had only a single bed, said the suit.

He tried those same seduction tactics days later in Rome, promising that he would open a modelling agency for her to run and that she could be his No. 2 at Pier 59, she insists.

Nonsense, said Pignatelli, who denied ever calling Sayigh a “hot piece of a-” or a “very sexy girl.”

“The only thing of hers that was in my hotel room was a piece of luggage. These are all completely made-up stories,” he said.

Sayigh’s suit says she finally succumbed twice to the Art and Fashion Group founder in a room aboard his boat in hopes of advancing her career.

“He called her into his room on the boat, took her bathing suit off, turned her facedown on the bed and had sex with her. That evening Pignatelli told Sayigh that she would do very well at the company and that he felt he had picked the right person to be his executive assistant,” said the suit. (ANI)