“It has stayed with me the rest of my life, that terror.”
CBS Chairman, CEO, and president Les Moonves is being accused by six women of sexual misconduct, harassment, and intimidation in a bombshell article by The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow. News of the impending story’s publication leaked Friday morning, bringing the media giant’s stock down more than six points.
“Six women who had professional dealings with him told me that, between the nineteen-eighties and the late aughts, Moonves sexually harassed them,” Farrow writes. “Four described forcible touching or kissing during business meetings, in what they said appeared to be a practiced routine. Two told me that Moonves physically intimidated them or threatened to derail their careers. All said that he became cold or hostile after they rejected his advances, and that they believed their careers suffered as a result.”
Actress, screenwriter, producer, and director Illeana Douglas described in great detail how, she says in Farrow’s article, Moonves “violently” kissed her. Farrow adds that Moonves “pulled up her skirt and began to thrust against her,” and left her in a state of terror.
“It was so invasive,” she said of the threatening encounter. “It has stayed with me the rest of my life, that terror.”
After the encounter – which she makes clear was not consensual – was over, Moonves, she says, worked to destroy her career.
“What happened to me was a sexual assault, and then I was fired for not participating,”
He appeared at a rehearsal, berated her, swore at her, apparently in an effort to lay the groundwork to have her fired.
In a statement, CBS said that Moonves acknowledges trying to kiss Douglas, but that “he denies any characterization of ‘sexual assault,’ intimidation, or retaliatory action,” including berating her on set and personally firing her from “Queens.”
She also contacted a lawyer who took notes. He “confirmed that Douglas had described the encounter with Moonves at the time, and his contemporaneous notes back up her account.”
“I believed Illeana,” he told me. “What happened to her was reprehensible.”
On Twitter, The New Yorker says, “30 current and former employees of CBS told @ronanfarrow that misconduct extended from Moonves to important parts of the corporation, including CBS News and ’60 Minutes,’ one of the network’s most esteemed programs.”
Farrow’s article is more than 9000 words.
You can read the entire article at The New Yorker.
Image by Fortune Brainstorm TECH via Flickr and a CC license
This article has been updated for clarity.