Hollywood Harassment Roundup: November 29
Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor, Plus Updates on Spacey, Piven, and Conyers.
11.29.2017
4
It has been a very weird day in the world of sexual harassment, so let's just dive on in.
Garrison Keillor
Lake "Whoa! Be Gone!" Am I right?
That's right, the voice of Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion is the latest man caught in a sexual harassment scandal. He was fired earlier today. Minnesota Public Radio issued a statement that read, in part:
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is terminating its contracts with Garrison Keillor and his private media companies after recently learning of allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him.
The statement indicates they do not believe there are any similar allegations out there against Keillor. This is 2017, however, so who knows? Keillor says that he was fired over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPRheard.”
Keillor has been getting increasingly political in recent years, however, so a lot of his core audience won't miss him too much while wishing he had been fired under victimless circumstances.
Keillor has been getting increasingly political in recent years, however, so a lot of his core audience won't miss him too much while wishing he had been fired under victimless circumstances.
Matt Lauer
NBC's Matt Lauer has been fired for sexually assaulting a woman with whom he worked. While the alleged incident happened in 2014, the woman came forward on Monday night and NBC took immediate action after investigating. This morning, Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie read the following statement by NBC News Chairman Andy Lack on-air:
Dear Colleagues,
On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company's standards. As a result, we've decided to terminate his employment. While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he's been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.
Our highest priority is to create a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected, and to ensure that any actions that run counter to our core values are met with consequences, no matter who the offender.
We are deeply saddened by this turn of events. But we will face it together as a news organization -- and do it in as transparent a manner as we can. To that end, Noah and I will be meeting with as many of you as possible throughout the day today to answer your questions.
You can read more details about the story by my illustrious colleague Trey Sanchez here, but I can't help but wonder about this tweet from Lauer's former colleague Ann Curry:
— Ann Curry (@AnnCurry) October 19, 2017
I have a feeling we'll be finding out more about her story and the details of Lauer's filing in the days to come.
Kevin Spacey
Director Ridley Scott is speaking out about replacing Kevin Spacey in the upcoming film All the Money in the World. He said the choice to reshoot all scenes with Spacey with actor Christopher Plummer was a "simple" one. He told Entertainment Weekly:
I was finished with the film and was in [U.K. recording studio] Abbey Road finalizing the music. Someone was like: Guess what? And that’s where it began. I sat and thought about it and realized, we cannot. You can’t tolerate any kind of behavior like that. And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple.
Good answer!
John Conyers
After Nancy Pelosi questioned accusations against John Conyers on Meet the Press over the weekend and defended him as "an icon," she ran into some pretty serious backlash. It turns out there are some people who don't think Democrats get a free pass on groping. Now, she's saying she believes the women.
Pelosi said in a statement:
This afternoon, I spoke with Melanie Sloan who worked for Congressman Conyers on the Judiciary Committee in the mid-1990s. Ms. Sloan told me that she had publicly discussed distressing experiences while on his staff. I find the behavior Ms. Sloan described unacceptable and disappointing. I believe what Ms. Sloan has told me.
Glad she got that PR nightmare fixed quickly, right?
Jeremy Piven
CBS has announced that it will be dropping actor Piven's new show Wisdom of the Crowd amidst allegations of sexual assault. Coincidence? The show didn't have great ratings, but it wasn't doing so badly it seemed to be on the chopping block.
Posts
