Documentarian steps down after admitting sexual misconduct

LOS ANGELES: Award-winning US documentary maker Morgan Spurlock ( pictured) stepped down from his production company on Thursday after saying on social media that he had engaged in sexual misconduct.

The “Super Size Me” director posted a message through his Twitter account on Wednesday saying that he had in the past been accused of rape, had settled a sexual harassment lawsuit, been unfaithful to wives and girlfriends and made sexist remarks in his workplace.

“As I sit around watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realisation of their past indiscretions, I don’t sit by and wonder ‘who will be next?’ I wonder, ‘when will they come for me?’

“You see, I’ve come to understand after months of these revelations, that I am not some innocent bystander, I am also a part of the problem,” he wrote. In a statement issued on Thursday by Spurlock’s independent production company, Warrior Poets, which he co-founded in 2004, partners Jeremy Chilnick and Matthew Galkin said, “As of today, Morgan Spurlock will be stepping down effective immediately. We will continue to lead the company as equal partners, producing, distributing & creating from our independent production company.” Spurlock’s representative Marian Koltai-Levine said Spurlock had no comment. Spurlock, 47, wrote that about eight years ago he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by an assistant he had called “hot pants” or “sex pants” in the office. He said that he had been “unfaithful to every wife and girlfriend I have ever had,” and that he has had a drinking problem for 30 years. — Reuters