Women accuse comedy star of pervy misconduct duct
Multiple women have come forward with allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior by comedian Louis C.K. — including claims that he masturbated in front of them and during phone calls.
Four women told The New York Times that they had witnessed or heard C.K. fondling himself, and a fifth says that he asked to masturbate in front of her but that she said no.
Chicago comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov say they had just gotten their big break at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., in 2002 when C.K., already a major name in comedy, asked them to hang out at his hotel room after their show.
As soon as they got there, he asked them if he could take out his member, the women claimed, adding that they laughed, thinking he was joking.
“He proceeded to take all of his clothes off and get completely naked, and started masturbating,” Goodman told the Times in an exposé on the comic/actor/director published Thursday. “We were paralyzed.” The Times also cited an unidentified woman who worked with C.K. on HBO’s “The Chris Rock Show” in the ’90s and who says the same thing happened to her repeatedly. She said she agreed, but wishes she hadn’t.
“I think the big piece of why I said yes was because of the culture. He abused his power,” she said.
C.K., born Louis Szekely, allegedly made the same request to comic Rebecca Corry in 2005, when both were working on a TV pilot. She declined. The show’s executive producers, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, confirmed to the Times that they were aware of her claim.
A fifth accuser, performer Abby Schachner, says that she called C.K. in 2003 to invite him to her show and that he started sharing his sexual fantasies over the phone and breathing heavily.
Six years later, he sent her a Facebook message that read, “That was a bad time in my life and I’m sorry.”
Corry told the Times that he called her in 2015 to apologize, telling her he “used to misread people.”
Goodman and Wolov said they told people about their encounter with C.K. shortly after it happened — but faced an immediate “backlash.”
They say C.K.’s manager, Dave Becky, told their own manager that they should stop talking about the incident.
Rumors of lewd conduct had circulated for years around C.K., 50, who has won acclaim as the creator/star of the FX series “Louie,” has appeared in a handful of movie roles and is releasing a new film, “I Love You, Daddy.”
Gawker wrote about Goodman and Wolov’s accusation in a 2012 blind item, and in 2015 alleged he had done the same to two other women at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.
Last year, Roseanne Barr told The Daily Beast: “It’s Louis C.K., locking the door and masturbating in front of women comics and writers. I can’t tell you — I’ve heard so many stories.”
Comedian Tig Notaro, whose Amazon series, “One Mississippi,” lists C.K. as executive producer, distanced herself from him this year, saying he needed to “handle” the allegations against him.
She told the Times that she knows many of his “victims.”
“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,” Notaro said.
Masturbation has been a prominent theme in C.K.’s routines.
“Some things I’m sick of, like the constant, perverted, sexual thoughts. I’m so tired of those . . . It makes me into an idiot. Jacking off to morons, and ooh, look at my t-ts,” he joked in a 2011 show at the Beacon Theatre on Broadway.
In his 2008 stand-up album, “Chewed Up,” he said, “I jerk off way too much and it upsets me and I don’t know why.”
The premiere of “I Love You, Daddy,” which C.K. directed and stars in, was canceled ahead of the Times’ story on Thursday. His appearance on “The Late Show” was also scrapped.
HBO, meanwhile, said it was dropping him from its “Night of Too Many Stars” comedy benefit, airing Nov. 18, and pulling his “past projects” from its on-demand service. C.K.’s HBO projects include the 2006 sitcom “Lucky Louie” and stand-up specials
C.K.’s publicist declined to comment onn the Times’ story, but the comic has denied such allegations before.
“I don’t care about that,” he told Vulture last year. “That’s nothing to me. That’s not real.”