In the suit, makeup artist Rita Ragone said she was pinched and fondled by sports commentator Woody Paige and subjected to crude sexual comments by ESPN host Jay Crawford at the show's studio in Manhattan.

Ragone said Paige once grabbed her backside so forcefully, she was "propelled forward and into the air."

"It is not true," Paige said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. He declined further comment.

"This suit is without merit, and we deny the allegations," said ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys. He declined to discuss any of the specific charges in the suit, which also named Paige and Crawford as defendants. Crawford did not immediately respond to a message left at the company's offices.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in federal court, claims the harassment began almost immediately after Ragone was hired by a video production company in 2005 to do hair and makeup on the "Cold Pizza" set.

Ragone said Paige, a columnist with The Denver Post, repeatedly made vulgar remarks about her appearance. Crawford, she said, made unwanted sexual advances, told her she only got the job because of her looks and contributed to a locker-room atmosphere by making disparaging remarks about another hair stylist.

Ragone said the situation was exacerbated by a few female employees who didn't seem to mind the atmosphere, including a stylist who gave the men lap dances.

"Ms. Ragone had never worked in such a vulgar or obscene environment," her lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.

Ragone said she raised complaints with managers at ESPN and her employer, Atlantic Video, only to be told to keep quiet. Ragone said a manager at Atlantic Video fired her last year after she refused to let the complaints drop.

An official at Atlantic Video, also named as a defendant, declined to comment.

ESPN retooled and renamed "Cold Pizza" in May, replacing it with "First Take," a similar program also co-hosted by Crawford.