{"id":51595,"date":"2017-11-10T05:10:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T05:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=51595"},"modified":"2017-11-10T05:10:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T05:10:11","slug":"louis-c-k-is-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-by-5-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/louis-c-k-is-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-by-5-women.html","title":{"rendered":"Louis C.K. Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 5 Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louis C.K. Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 5 Women<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Louis C.K. Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct by 5 Women:- In 2002, a Chicago comedy duo, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, landed their big break: a chance to perform at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. When Louis C.K. invited them to hang out in his hotel room for a nightcap after their late-night show, they did not think twice. The bars were closed and they wanted to celebrate. He was a comedian they admired. The women would be together. His intentions seemed collegial.<\/span><\/p>\n

As soon as they sat down in his room, still wrapped in their winter jackets and hats, Louis C.K. asked if he could take out his penis, the women said.<\/span><\/p>\n

They thought it was a joke and laughed it off. \u201cAnd then he really did it,\u201d Ms. Goodman said in an interview with The New York Times. \u201cHe proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2003, Abby Schachner called Louis C.K. to invite him to one of her shows, and during the phone conversation, she said, she could hear him masturbating as they spoke. Another comedian, Rebecca Corry, said that while she was appearing with Louis C.K. on a television pilot in 2005, he asked if he could masturbate in front of her. She declined.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about Louis C.K. masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward to describe what they experienced. Even amid the current burst of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men, the stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. In the years since the incidents the women describe, he has sold out Madison Square Garden eight times, created an Emmy-winning TV series, and accumulated the clout of a tastemaker and auteur, with the help of a manager who represents some of the biggest names in comedy. And Louis C.K. built a reputation as the unlikely conscience of the comedy scene, by making audiences laugh about hypocrisy \u2014 especially male hypocrisy.<\/span><\/p>\n

After being contacted for an interview this week about the on-the-record accusations of sexual misconduct \u2014 encounters that took place over a decade ago \u2014 Louis C.K.\u2019s publicist, Lewis Kay, said the comedian would not respond. \u201cLouis is not going to answer any questions,\u201d Mr. Kay wrote in an email Tuesday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Louis C.K. nor Mr. Kay replied to follow-up emails in which the accusations were laid out in detail, or to voice messages or texts. On Thursday, the premiere of Louis C.K.\u2019s new movie \u201cI Love You, Daddy,\u201d was abruptly canceled, and he also canceled an appearance on \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The stories told by the women raise sharp questions about the anecdotes that Louis C.K. tells in his own comedy. He rose to fame in part by appearing to be candid about his flaws and sexual hang-ups, discussing and miming masturbation extensively in his act \u2014 an exaggerated riff that some of the women feel may have served as a cover for real misconduct. He has all but invited comparison between his private life and his onscreen work, too: In \u201cI Love You, Daddy,\u201d which is scheduled to be released next week, a character pretends to masturbate at length in front of other people, and other characters appear to dismiss rumors of sexual predation.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, Louis C.K. has also boosted the careers of women, and is sometimes viewed as a feminist by fans and critics. But Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov said that when they told others about the incident in the Colorado hotel room, they heard that Louis C.K.\u2019s manager was upset that they were talking about it openly. The women feared career repercussions. Louis C.K.\u2019s manager, Dave Becky, was adamant in an email that he \u201cnever threatened anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For comedians, the professional environment is informal: profanity and raunch that would be far out of line in most workplaces are common, and personal foibles \u2014 the weirder the better \u2014 are routinely mined for material. But Louis C.K.\u2019s behavior was abusive, the women said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the line gets crossed when you take all your clothes off and start masturbating,\u201d Ms. Wolov said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018You Want to Believe It\u2019s Not Happening\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. 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 \u2014 a big step in her career \u2014 when Louis C.K., a guest star, approached her as she was walking to the set. \u201cHe leaned close to my face and said, \u2018Can I ask you something?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes,\u2019\u201d Ms. Corry said in a written statement to The New York Times. \u201cHe asked if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me.\u201d Stunned and angry, Ms. Corry said she declined, and pointed out that he had a daughter and a pregnant wife. \u201cHis face got red,\u201d she recalled, \u201cand he told me he had issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Word quickly reached the show\u2019s executive producers, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, who both confirmed the incident. \u201cWhat happened to Rebecca on that set was awful,\u201d Ms. Cox said in an email, adding that she felt \u201coutrage and shock.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern was to create an environment where Rebecca felt safe, protected and heard,\u201d she said. They discussed curtailing the production. Ms. Corry decided to continue with the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThings were going well for me,\u201d Ms. Corry said in the statement, \u201cand I had no interest in being the person who shut down a production.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A fifth woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her family\u2019s privacy because she has not been publicly linked to the incident with Louis C.K., also has disturbing memories about an incident with the comedian. In the late \u201990s, she was working in production at \u201cThe Chris Rock Show\u201d when Louis C.K., a writer and producer there, repeatedly asked her to watch him masturbate, she said. She was in her early 20s and went along with his request, but later questioned his behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something that I knew was wrong,\u201d said the woman, who described sitting in Louis C.K.\u2019s office while he masturbated in his desk chair during a workday, other colleagues just outside the door. \u201cI think the big piece of why I said yes was because of the culture,\u201d she continued. \u201cHe abused his power.\u201d A co-worker at \u201cThe Chris Rock Show,\u201d who also wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that the woman told him about the experience soon after it happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Schachner, a writer, illustrator and performer, admired Louis C.K.\u2019s work. They had met in the comedy scene; Ms. Schachner\u2019s former boyfriend was a comedy writer who had worked with Louis C.K. In 2003, when she called Louis C.K. with an invitation to her show, he said he was at work in an office as a writer on the series \u201cCedric the Entertainer Presents,\u201d she recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their conversation quickly moved from the personal \u2014 Louis C.K. had seen photos of her on her boyfriend\u2019s desk, he said, and told her he thought she was cute \u2014 to \u201cunprofessional and inappropriate,\u201d Ms. Schachner said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said she heard the blinds coming down. Then he slowly started telling her his sexual fantasies, breathing heavily and talking softly. She realized he was masturbating, and was dumbfounded. The call went on for several minutes, even though, Ms. Schachner said, \u201cI definitely wasn\u2019t encouraging it.\u201d But she didn\u2019t know how to end it, either. \u201cYou want to believe it\u2019s not happening,\u201d she said. A friend, Stuart Harris, confirmed that Ms. Schachner had described the call to him in 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n

For years afterward, Ms. Schachner said, she felt angry and betrayed by an artist she looked up to. And she wondered what she could have done differently. \u201cI felt very ashamed,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Run-In, Then Fears About Speaking Out<\/span><\/p>\n

During Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov\u2019s surreal visit to Louis C.K.\u2019s Aspen hotel room, they said they were holding onto each other, screaming and laughing in shock, as Louis C.K. masturbated in a chair. \u201cWe were paralyzed,\u201d Ms. Goodman said. After he ejaculated on his stomach, they said, they fled. He called after them: \u201cHe was like, \u2018Which one is Dana and which one is Julia?\u2019\u201d Ms. Goodman recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Afterward, they ran into Charna Halpern, the owner of influential improv theaters in Los Angeles and Chicago, where Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov performed, and relayed what had happened. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do, I didn\u2019t know what to tell them to do,\u201d said Ms. Halpern. Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov decided against going to the police, unsure whether what happened was criminal, but felt they had to respond in some way \u201cbecause something crazy happened to us,\u201d Ms. Goodman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoping that outrage would build against Louis C.K., and also to shame him, they began telling others about the incident the next day. But many people seemed to recoil, they said. \u201cGuys were backing away from us,\u201d Ms. Wolov said. Barely 24 hours after they left Louis C.K.\u2019s hotel, \u201cwe could already feel the backlash.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after, they said they understood from their managers that Mr. Becky, Louis C.K\u2019s manager, wanted them to stop telling people about their encounter with Louis C.K. Lee Kernis, one of the women\u2019s managers at the time, confirmed on Thursday that he had a conversation in which he told Mr. Becky that Louis C.K.\u2019s behavior toward the women had been offensive. Mr. Kernis also said that Mr. Becky was upset that the women were talking openly about the incident.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Becky denied making any threats toward the women. \u201cI don\u2019t recall the exact specifics of the conversation, but know I never threatened anyone,\u201d he wrote by email on Thursday. Ms. Halpern and Robert Schroeder \u2014 Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov\u2019s agent at the time \u2014 said that the pair told them that they felt they had been warned to stop talking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Becky arguably wields even more power in comedy than Louis C.K. He represents Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler and other top performers, and his company, 3 Arts, puts together programming deals for nearly every platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov moved to Los Angeles shortly after the Aspen festival, but \u201cwe were coming here with a bunch of enemies,\u201d Ms. Goodman said. Gren Wells, a filmmaker who befriended the comedy duo in 2002, said the incident and the warning, which they told her about soon after Aspen, hung heavily over them both. \u201cThis is something that they were freaked out about,\u201d Ms. Wells said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the years since, Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov have found some success, but they remained concerned about Mr. Becky and took themselves out of the running for the many projects he was involved in. Though their humor is in line with what he produces, \u201cwe know immediately that we can never even submit our material,\u201d Ms. Wolov said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Private Acts, Public Jokes<\/span><\/p>\n

Jokes about masturbation have been a regular part of Louis C.K.\u2019s stage shows. In one bit, he complains about not being able to find a private place in his house to do it. \u201cI\u2019m on the streets now,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u2019ve got nowhere to go.\u201d In another bit he laments being a prisoner of his perversions. \u201cJust the constant perverted sexual thoughts,\u201d he says, then mimes masturbating. \u201cIt makes me into a moron.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tig Notaro, the comedian whose Amazon series, \u201cOne Mississippi,\u201d lists Louis C.K. as an executive producer, is one of the few in the fiercely insular comedy world to speak out against him. Her career received a huge boost when he released her 2012 comedy album, about her cancer diagnosis. But their relationship has crumbled and she now feels \u201ctrapped\u201d by her association with him, she wrote in an email.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her fear is that \u201che released my album to cover his tracks,\u201d she said. \u201cHe knew it was going to make him look like a good guy, supporting a woman.\u201d Ms. Notaro said she learned of his reputation after they sold the series to Amazon, and a recent story line is a fictional treatment of the alleged masturbation episodes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, I\u2019ve come to learn that Louis C.K.\u2019s victims are not only real,\u201d she said by email, \u201cbut many are actual friends of mine within the comedy community,\u201d like Ms. Corry, who confided in her, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his forthcoming film, about a television writer whose teenage daughter is wooed by a Woody Allen type, one character aggressively mimics masturbating in front of others. The content has raised eyebrows. Given the rumors surrounding Louis C.K., the movie \u201cplays like an ambiguous moral inventory of and excuse for everything that allows sexual predators to thrive: open secrets, toxic masculinity, and powerful people getting the benefit of the doubt,\u201d Joe Berkowitz wrote in Fast Company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet in an interview with The Times in September at the Toronto film festival, where \u201cI Love You, Daddy,\u201d was shown, Louis C.K. dismissed stories of his alleged sexual misconduct as \u201crumors,\u201d and said the notion that the masturbation scenes referred to them never occurred to him. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I didn\u2019t think of that, \u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apologies With Troubling Implications<\/span><\/p>\n

In private, though, he appears to have acknowledged his behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2009, six years after their phone call, Ms. Schachner received a Facebook message from Louis C.K., apologizing. \u201cLast time I talked to you ended in a sordid fashion,\u201d he wrote in the message, which was reviewed by The Times. \u201cThat was a bad time in my life and I\u2019m sorry.\u201d He added that he had seen some of Ms. Schachner\u2019s comedy and thought she was funny. \u201cI remember thinking what a repulsive person I was being by responding the way that I did,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Schachner accepted his apology and told him she forgave him. But the original interaction left her deeply dispirited, she said, and was one of the things that discouraged her from pursuing comedy.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, a few months before the now-defunct website Defamer circulated rumors of Louis C.K.\u2019s alleged sexual misconduct, Ms. Corry also received an email from Louis C.K., which was obtained by The Times, saying he owed her a \u201cvery very very late apology.\u201d When he phoned her, he said he was sorry for shoving her in a bathroom. Ms. Corry replied that he had never done that, but had instead asked to masturbate in front of her. Responding in a shaky voice, he acknowledged it and said, \u201cI used to misread people back then,\u201d she recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

The call confounded her, Ms. Corry said: not only had he misremembered the incident, which made her think there were other moments of misconduct, he also implied she had done something to invite his behavior. \u201cIt is unfair he\u2019s put me or anyone else in this position,\u201d Ms. Corry said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov said that with other allegations swirling around the entertainment world, they could no longer stay silent. \u201cBecause of this moment, as gross as it is, we feel compelled to speak,\u201d Ms. Goodman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Notaro said she was standing in support of those with the courage \u201cto speak up against such a powerful figure,\u201d she said, \u201cas well as the multitude of women still out there, not quite ready to share their nightmares.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/11\/09\/arts\/television\/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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