Sunday, July 29, 2018

#ThemToo: Six Women Come Out With Accusations Against CBS's Les Moonves

Said the writer-actress Illeana Douglas to Les Moonves, at the end of this incident (described by Ronan Farrow in "Les Moonves and CBS Face Allegations of Sexual Misconduct/Six women accuse the C.E.O. of harassment and intimidation, and dozens more describe abuse at his company" (The New Yorker)):
When Douglas met with Moonves at his office, she began to raise concerns about the “Queens” script, but Moonves, she recalled, cut her off. “He interrupts me to ask me am I single,” she said. Douglas, whose nearly decade-long relationship with Scorsese was coming to an end, was caught off guard. “I didn’t know what to say at that point,” she told me. “I was, like, ‘I’m single, yes, no, maybe.’ ” She began talking about the script, but Moonves interjected, asking to kiss her. According to Douglas, he said that they didn’t have to tell her manager: “It’ll just be between you and me. Come on, you’re not some nubile virgin.”
 She's familiar; but I can't place her.
As Douglas attempted to turn the focus back to work, Moonves, she said, grabbed her. “In a millisecond, he’s got one arm over me, pinning me,” she said. Moonves was “violently kissing” her, holding her down on the couch with her arms above her head. “What it feels like to have someone hold you down—you can’t breathe, you can’t move,” she said. “The physicality of it was horrendous.” She recalled lying limp and unresponsive beneath him. “You sort of black out,” she told me. “You think, How long is this going to go on? I was just looking at this nice picture of his family and his kids. I couldn’t get him off me.” She said it was only when Moonves, aroused, pulled up her skirt and began to thrust against her that her fear overcame her paralysis. She told herself that she had to do something to stop him. “At that point, you’re a trapped animal,” she told me. “Your life is flashing before your eyes.” Moonves, in what Douglas assumed was an effort to be seductive, paused and asked, “So, what do you think?” Douglas told me, “My decision was to get out of it by joking my way out, so he feels flattered.”
For his part, Moonves admitted  "I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances,” Moonves said" adding that he regretted that.
Douglas maintains that after the trauma of her meeting with Moonves, she was let go from the pilot and CBS tried to renege on her $300,000 holding deal for the show. After her lawyer pressed the issue with CBS, Douglas settled out for $125,000, and she was offered a role in the CBS miniseries “Bella Mafia.”

“I go from being sexually assaulted, fired for not having sex with Les Moonves, fired by everyone, to ‘We are going to pay you in full and we also want you to be on this miniseries,’” Douglas told Farrow. “My understanding is, this is what they were going to do in exchange for not suing.”
Screenwriter Janet Jones

Writer Janet Jones accuses Moonves of assaulting her during a pitch meeting at his office in 1985, when he was a TV executive at 20th Century Fox. When she tried to leave, she found the door locked. He unlocked it after she threatened to scream, Jones recalled. Afterward, Moonves threatened to ruin her career, Jones claims. CBS told the New Yorker that Moonves has no memory of the meeting with Jones.
Producer Christine Peters

Producer Christine Peters accused Moonves of making an advance to her in 2006 when she met with him in the hopes of landing the job as head of CBS Films, which was just starting up. Peters accused Moonves of putting his hand up her skirt and touched her thigh and underwear. CBS told the New Yorker that Moonves “categorically denies any alleged touching or inappropriate conduct during the meeting.”
I love it when the torpedoes launched to take out Donald Trump circle around and strike their owners.

Wombat-socho has "Rule Five Sunday: Summer Event Silliness" published on time and within budget.














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