While promoting his upcoming I Love You, Daddy, star, writer, and director Louis C.K. was asked about the allegations of sexual misconduct that have followed him for years. “I’m not going to answer that stuff, because they’re rumors,” he told the New York Times. “They’re rumors, that’s all it is.”
Others would disagree.
Five women came forward to New York Times reporters Cara Buckley, Melena Ryzik, and Jodi Kantor, confirming what Roseanne Barr and Tig Notaro, among others, have hinted at. The incidents range from C.K. asking comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov if he could take off his pants (they laughed it off as a joke, but “he proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating,” said Goodman), to C.K. masturbating while speaking to Abby Schachner on the phone.
[Rebecca] Corry, a comedian, writer, and actress, has long felt haunted by her run-in with Louis C.K. In 2005, she was working as a performer and producer on a television pilot when C.K., a guest star, approached her as she was walking to the set. “He leaned close to my face and said, ‘Can I ask you something?’ I said, ‘Yes,’” Ms. Corry said in a written statement to The New York Times. “He asked if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me.” Stunned and angry, Ms. Corry said she declined, and pointed out that he had a daughter and a pregnant wife. “His face got red,” she recalled, “and he told me he had issues.” (Via)
The women the Times spoke to have different stories, but they all vocalized roughly the same thing: they were afraid to speak up. “I had no interest in being the person who shut down a production,” Corry said, while another woman, who worked in production on The Chris Rock Show with C.K., went along with his request “because of the culture. He abused his power.”
Tig Notaro, whose One Mississippi lists C.K. as an executive producer (he also released her album Live on his website), feels “trapped” by her association. “He knew it was going to make him look like a good guy, supporting a woman,” she said. “Sadly, I’ve come to learn that Louis C.K.’s victims are not only real, but many are actual friends of mine within the comedy community.”
In an email to the Times, C.K.’s representative wrote, “Louis is not going to answer any questions.” You can read the entire article here.
(Via The New York Times)
