Louis CK & Other Hollywood/Celebrity Types Sexual Misconduct

[Ben E Lou]

...

[Logan]

Feels like this has been hinted at for at least a year.

[Ben E Lou]

Story just hit. NYT.

[ISiddiqui]

Looks like the story just dropped.

Louis C.K. Crossed a Line Into Sexual Misconduct, 5 Women Say - The New York Times

He masturbated in front of 2 female comedians and harassed 3 others.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Damn it.

[Neuqua]

Well this sucks.

[mckerney]

[korme]

Surprised it took this long

[HomerSimpson98]

maybe we should start a thread for people that havent been charged with sexual shenanigans

[RainMaker]

It might be easier to make threads about people in Hollywood who aren't complete perverts toward women.

Edit: beaten by a second!

[HomerSimpson98]

woo-hoo!

[molson]

Originally Posted by HomerSimpson98

maybe we should start a thread for people that havent been charged with sexual shenanigans

1. Frank Stallone

Actually I had to google that, and then I found articles about a sexual harassment lawsuit against Sly Stallone, from back in the old days of March 2017 when that kind of thing wasn't a career killer.

I think Frank's clean though.

[sabotai]

I think the old Norm MacDonald SNL bit every time I see a headline for someone who is the best at something (usually sports related)

"Through 9 weeks, Alex Smith is #1 in Passer Rating"

"And coming in at 2nd place, you guessed it. Frank Stallone."

[Suicane75]

Louis CK is a very good sexual predator. He's only a bad sexual predator compared to other, professional, sexual predators.

[Autumn]

Time to just burn it all down and start over?

This is the first of these that really disappointed me. But I actually hope they drag every asshole out into the light, like I hope this goes on for months and months and maybe then it will be clear to these guys their shit ain't allowed.

[Logan]

There's a lot of things I (thankfully) don't understand about the behavior that results in these kind of stories. But what might be the craziest is how, after doing these things, being accused of these things, and apologizing for these things, you still make it part of your very public act.

[CrescentMoonie]

I haven't even read it, but Tig Notaro has been openly talking about this stuff for a while now.

[CrimsonFox]

I have a friend that looks a lot like him. He is probably hiding his face a lot now.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by korme

Surprised it took this long

+1

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by korme

Surprised it took this long

Yup, you could see it coming.

[PilotMan]

First story I saw regarding rumors was Gawker back in 2012. The rumors have been out there for a while.

[thesloppy]

Yeah these rumors have been out there forever, that said, I think they were also explicitly denied to be about CK by the person who made them (and eventually CK himself), so it's still kind of a small surprise to see them turn out to be true. And it's weird that he was kind of courting the rumours and explicitly exploring these themes apparently while he was doing the same skeezy stuff..some kinda weird shame/compulsion shit going on?

Upon reflection it kinda makes all the aggressive "my kids (who all happen to be daughters) are shitty" humor kind of uncomfortable. I remember him kinda trashing the his ex-wife on his show, as a character as well. Which is not at all to say that he's a pedo or anything sexual, so much as he just doesn't sound great as the only/main parental influence for a couple of young daughters, after reconsidering his comedy with the benefit of hindsight.

[Fidatelo]

He's always just generally made me uncomfortable, and so has never been a comedian I really enjoyed, so this news doesn't hurt nearly in the way the Cosby revelations did.

[panerd]

I think what Louis CK has going for him that maybe others don't is that I'm not sure he ever tried to have some other persona. Cosby was brought up in this thread but not only did Cosby claim to be super clean but he lectured those who weren't. Louis CK seemed to basically say in his act and interviews what kind of a dirtbag he is. I just don't see this effecting his fans much. Probably kills his leap to mainstream megastar but maybe in some sort of Freudian subconscious way he didn't want that anyways?

[QuikSand]

I semi-agree that the lack of hypocrisy is a benefit for him, but I don't think you can forecast little effect. There's always the element of "do I want to support/enrich this person?" in play... and as a one-man show (especially since he's gone so far into distributing his material himself, etc) that seems to land hard on him.

I think he's possibly the very best stand up comedian ever - or at least the last 5-10 years have put him into that conversation - and I'll likely hesitate to go and spend money on something from him. Does that make me willfully naive or hypocritical (if we all "saw this coming" pun maybe intended) for enjoying him all these years? I don't know.

[Toddzilla]

I've been a huge fan too - you can even see me in the front rows of his last Netflix special "2017" - but unless there's a complete mea culpa and he takes full ownership of this and apologizes, I'm never going to watch or listen to another second that creep does ever again.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I semi-agree that the lack of hypocrisy is a benefit for him, but I don't think you can forecast little effect. There's always the element of "do I want to support/enrich this person?" in play... and as a one-man show (especially since he's gone so far into distributing his material himself, etc) that seems to land hard on him.

I think he's possibly the very best stand up comedian ever - or at least the last 5-10 years have put him into that conversation - and I'll likely hesitate to go and spend money on something from him. Does that make me willfully naive or hypocritical (if we all "saw this coming" pun maybe intended) for enjoying him all these years? I don't know.

He's been my favorite comedian for a long while now and I'm with you in feeling conflicted. I did willfully ignore the rumors, and wanted them to be wrong.

[Kodos]

Somewhere out there, Paul Reubens is feeling pretty good about himself.

[CrimsonFox]

spacey, Moore, CK....who's next? trump???

[Kodos]

My wife told me last night that Charlie Sheen was accused by Corey Feldman of sexually assaulting Corey Haim. Does that count?

I think Barney the dinosaur is next.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Kodos

My wife told me last night that Charlie Sheen was accused by Corey Feldman of sexually assaulting Corey Haim. Does that count?

I think Barney the dinosaur is next.

did he try to explore Dora?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

did he try to explore Dora?

puts a whole diff spin on the reason for the slight D-D-D-Dora stutter I guess.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Somewhere out there, Paul Reubens is feeling pretty good about himself.

Hey, feeling good about himself is what got him in trouble the first time

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Kodos

My wife told me last night that Charlie Sheen was accused by Corey Feldman of sexually assaulting Corey Haim. Does that count?

I think Barney the dinosaur is next.

And Chloe from Smallville is allegedly second in command of a sex cult...

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

puts a whole diff spin on the reason for the slight D-D-D-Dora stutter I guess.

Just what exactly was Swiper trying to swipe?!

[Logan]

I see a lot of fellow comedians/friends of CK getting shit online about either ignoring rumors in the past, or not coming out with strong statements "denouncing" CK. Is it just me, or are we not allowing people to have normal human conflicting thoughts on how to properly deal with this stuff? I'm sure it's difficult coming to grips with the idea that your friend isn't actually who you think he is, and people will struggle with that whether they're celebrities with money or normal schmucks like us.

I see the Twitter mob going after a guy like Aziz Ansari and I just don't get it. To me, as long as you're not victim shaming or outright denying/questioning the motivation of the accusers, let these people react however they feel is right.

[QuikSand]

mobs get unruly, that's what they do

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Logan

Is it just me, or are we not allowing people to have normal human conflicting thoughts on how to properly deal with this stuff?

I'm reminded a bit (maybe more than just a bit?) of the whole big gaming/YT/social media kerfluffle known as Gamergate.

While I largely ignored that mess, wasn't one notable element of it how there were basically packs going after this person or that person based on their perceived reaction to some previous element of it?

Like Quik said, this is kinda what mobs DO.

[Butter]

I was in a ruly mob once.

Pretty boring. Lots of paperwork.

[Ben E Lou]

In case you missed it...

Originally Posted by Louis C.K.

I want to address the stories told to The New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.

These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.

I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position.

I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.

There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.

I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.

The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years.

I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.

I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.

Thank you for reading.

[QuikSand]

I'm reluctant to say anything that sounds anything at all like "well, all is forgiven," but I'd say this: for the countless shitheads who puke out a non-apology in a situation like this, this is a lot closer to how you're supposed do it when the chips are down.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I'm reluctant to say anything that sounds anything at all like "well, all is forgiven," but I'd say this: for the countless shitheads who puke out a non-apology in a situation like this, this is a lot closer to how you're supposed do it when the chips are down.

Amen.

[Butter]

I mean, I could've done without the awards show paragraph where he names all of his shows in production and his agent.

But sure.

[thesloppy]

That was a decent apology.

I'm relatively bummed that the recent revolution of abuse reporting has revealed one of my closest friends to be kind of a creepy dude. Literally every time one of these stories comes up he immediately segues into a long explanation about why he's not trying to blame the victims, before coming up with some way to gaslight/question the victims (usually along the lines of "Why didn't they just leave?"). Once or twice I might be able to look past, since we're both old farts who love to play devil's advocate, but EVERY time, and with some conviction, is something of a red flag.

I've started to try to check him to the best of my ability (which admittedly isn't much), but it's easier said than done, when talking with a close personal friend, rather than a strawman, or some construct on the internet. Like Louis and a lot of these dudes, I think my friend's issues with women (and himself) are largely based in shame and there's a real challenge in trying to check someone's core behavior without also making them feel more shamed/judged, which might just serve to make the attitude/behavior even worse.

Anybody else dealing with similar challenges these days?

[korme]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I'm reluctant to say anything that sounds anything at all like "well, all is forgiven," but I'd say this: for the countless shitheads who puke out a non-apology in a situation like this, this is a lot closer to how you're supposed do it when the chips are down.

It seems more like a confession than an apology, in my opinion.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Yeah. I know a lot of it is that I'm a huge fan of his, but that's about as good as you can write an apology in this sort of scenario.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I'm reluctant to say anything that sounds anything at all like "well, all is forgiven," but I'd say this: for the countless shitheads who puke out a non-apology in a situation like this, this is a lot closer to how you're supposed do it when the chips are down.

Yep. Though I do think his manager was pretty slimy as well. I know he was trying to let him off the hook, but still.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

He's always just generally made me uncomfortable, and so has never been a comedian I really enjoyed, so this news doesn't hurt nearly in the way the Cosby revelations did.

Yup, totally this. His comedy is creepy and unfunny to me, so to see him exposed as a creep in real life? Shocker alert.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

That was a decent apology.

I'm relatively bummed that the recent revolution of abuse reporting has revealed one of my closest friends to be kind of a creepy dude. Literally every time one of these stories comes up he immediately segues into a long explanation about why he's not trying to blame the victims, before coming up with some way to gaslight/question the victims (usually along the lines of "Why didn't they just leave?"). Once or twice I might be able to look past, since we're both old farts who love to play devil's advocate, but EVERY time, and with some conviction, is something of a red flag.

I've started to try to check him to the best of my ability (which admittedly isn't much), but it's easier said than done, when talking with a close personal friend, rather than a strawman, or some construct on the internet. Like Louis and a lot of these dudes, I think my friend's issues with women (and himself) are largely based in shame and there's a real challenge in trying to check someone's core behavior without also making them feel more shamed/judged, which might just serve to make the attitude/behavior even worse.

Anybody else dealing with similar challenges these days?

After reading the apology, I found myself just saying "Ok, now what" specifically because of these types of challenges.

[CrimsonFox]

some facebook people already angry at the apologies and not accepting them at all