Louis C.K. accused of sexual misconduct
• Comedian Louis C.K. has been accused of sexual misconduct toward several women, including masturbating in front of them to their horror and embarrassment, according to a report in The New York Times.
Five women — including comedians Dana Min Goodman, Abby Schachner, Julia Wolov, Rebecca Corry — allege the Emmy-winning star of FX’s Louie either pleasured himself in front of them, asked to do it or did so over the phone.
A publicist for C. K. did not immediately respond to comment from The Associated Press. Another publicist told the Times the comedian would not respond to their reporting.
Corry alleges the comedian, while she was working on a TV pilot in 2005, asked “if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me.” She declined “and he told me he had issues.” The show’s executive producers, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, confirmed Corry’s account to the Times.
In anticipation of the report, the New York première of Louis C. K.’s controversial new film I Love You, Daddy was cancelled on Thursday night and C. K.’s scheduled Friday appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has also been scrapped.
C. K. is among the latest Hollywood figures to be accused of misconduct in a wave that began when dozens of sexual harassment allegations were reported last month against film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Known for his candid personal humour, which often includes bodily fluids and sex, C. K. grew up outside Boston. He performed standup sets in New York and landed writing gigs on Conan O’Brien’s Late Night and David Letterman’s Late Show. He went on to become head writer of The Dana Carvey Show from 1995-96 and contributed to the animated TV Funhouse vignettes on Saturday Night Live.
His new film, I Love You, Daddy, had i ts première this summer at the Toronto International Film Festival. C. K., who co- starred in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, said he and co-writer Vernon Chatman wanted to make a movie about beloved artists who are trailed by murmurs of scandal.
Some also see the film as C. K.’s response to his own controversies.
In the film, C. K. plays a successful TV producer whose 17- year- old daughter begins a relationship with an older director. It spawns a kind of crisis for C.K.’s character, who has his own issues with how he treats women.