Louis CK Denies Sexual Misconduct Allegations
by EG
Comedian Louis C.K. says some pretty outrageous stuff on stage, but he's also been haunted by rumors that he actually does some of the inappropriate things that he jokes about. Louis himself claims that there's nothing to the rumors, but other sources disagree.
Louis C.K. refused to engage with "rumors" linking him to sexual misconduct towards female comedians during an interview at the Toronto film festival to promote his new film I Love You Daddy.
In an interview with the New York Times published Monday, C.K. brushed aside questions concerning the long-running rumors that are back under scrutiny with the release of his envelope-pushing film and after comments by fellow comedian and one-time friend Tig Notaro.
“I’m not going to answer to that stuff, because they’re rumors,” C.K. told the Times. “If you actually participate in a rumor, you make it bigger and you make it real,” he added.
Pressed further on the topic, C.K. responded, “They’re rumors, that’s all that is.”
Notaro spoke about the rumors while promoting the second season of her Amazon series One Mississippi last month. “I think it’s important to take care of that, to handle that, because it’s serious to be assaulted. It’s serious to be harassed. It’s serious, it’s serious, it’s serious,” she first said in an interview with The Daily Beast last month.
In the second season of her Amazon traumedy, a character (played by Notaro's wife, Stephanie Allynne) is sexually assaulted when her boss masturbates in front of her during a pitch meeting. The scene echoes a similar allegation that has been leveled against C.K. by anonymous comedians that gained further traction after a Roseanne Barr interview last year. (He addressed the allegations in a 2016 interview with Vulture.)
Notaro told The Hollywood Reporter that she and C.K. haven't spoken in nearly two years, though he remains an executive producer on One Mississippi (the show is produced under C.K.'s FX Productions-based Pig Newton banner) and his name is still credited in each episode's opening credits. Notaro has since said C.K. has nothing to do with the show.
When discussing why she explored the specific sexual act on a season that tackled different levels of sexual assault with both the female and male characters, she told THR: "When people haven’t lived through that or experienced it in any way, for some reason this particular act is really tossed aside as though it’s just this person exposing themselves and they’re 'just or a weirdo' and just 'leave the room.' It’s that kind of vibe. We wanted to show that you can be assaulted without even being touched. Nothing can be said and you are still horrifically violated and scared."
Notaro based most of her first season on her own traumatic experiences, which she explored in a legendary stand-up routine, "Hello, I Have Cancer." The Largo set made her an overnight sensation, thanks in part to support from C.K. The comedian tweeted about the set and later sold the recording on his website. But something happened between Notaro and C.K. along the way. "I have not spoken to Louis in probably going on two years now.," she told THR when asked if their recent dust-up over his Saturday Night Live sketch resembling one of her past shorts spurred him to reach out to her. "I will never hear from Louis C.K. again," she said frankly.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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