CBS Renews Bull in Wake of Michael Weatherly Sexual Misconduct Allegations: What the Actuak F-ck?!?
Last July, CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves was accused of some very damning instances of sexual harassment.
The powerful executive has since been removed from his position, making some folks think that the network has learned some sort of lesson and will be sensitive toward the issue of female empowerment and equality going forward.
However, these folks would sadly be mistaken.
On Thursday, CBS renewed Bull for a fourth season.
The drama has been a perfectly steady ratings producer for the network and it stars a familiar face: Michael Weatherly, formerly one of the lead cast members on NCIS.
Weatherly has anything but a perfect reputation, though.
Just this past December, former co-star Elizua Dushku went into detail about all the inappropriate behavior of Weatherly on set.
She did so as a follow-up to a story in The New York Times that reported the actress was paid $9.5 million by CBS to settle sexual harassment claims she made during her brief stint on the drama Bull.
These claims were made again Weatherly.
“Weatherly harassed me from early on,” Dushku said, explaining that there are tapes that “show his offer to take me to his ‘rape van, filled with all sorts of lubricants and long phallic things.'”
Dushku complained to producers at the time about everything Weatherly said — and they allegedly responded by scuttling plans to make her a series regular.
“There was also his constant name-calling; playing provocative songs (like “Barracuda”) on his iPhone when I approached my set marks; and his remark about having a threesome,” Dushku continued late last year, adding:
“He made the threesome remark to me about himself and me in a room full of people.”
Dushku said it was evident his “conduct was unwelcome and directed at me.”
She said she was fired after taking these concerns to the higher-ups.
“Weatherly sexually harassed and bullied me day-in and day-out and would have gotten away with it had he not been caught on tape, and had the CBS lawyers not inadvertently shared the tapes with my [lawyer.],” she also said a few months ago.
Despite these serious allegations, and despite Bull not even being among its top-rated shows, CBS made the bizzare choice yesterday to bring it back for a fourth season.
In response, Steven Spielberg, as well as his production company Amblin Television and fellow executive producers Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, have parted ways with Bull.
They did the right thing here.
Heck, the obvious thing here.
Weatherly apologized in a statement to the Times article last year.
But the mea culpa was actually what prompted Dushku to speak out because she thought, basically, that it was complete BS.
‘“During the course of taping our show, I made some jokes mocking some lines in the script,” the actor said, adding:
“When Eliza told me that she wasn’t comfortable with my language and attempt at humor, I was mortified to have offended her and immediately apologized.
“fter reflecting on this further, I better understand that what I said was both not funny and not appropriate and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza.”
What did Dushku think of this so-called apology?
“The narrative propagated by CBS, actor Michael Weatherly, and writer-producer Glenn Gordon Caron is deceptive and in no way fits with how they treated me on the set of the television show Bull and retaliated against me for simply asking to do my job without relentless sexual harassment,” she wrote last year.
It’s pretty baffling that CBS messed up such an easy and clear call here.
For shame.
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