Louis C.K. has quickly disappeared from both the small and big screens after five women came forward to accuse the actor and comedian of masturbating in front of them or over the phone in a New York Times expose.
On Thursday, HBO announced that they will be cutting C.K. from their ‘Night of Too Many Stars’ special when the autism benefit airs on the network November 18.
And the day before that C.K’s new film I Love You Daddy will not be arriving in theaters it was announced on Friday.
The Orchard, who purchased the distribution rights to the film for $5 million after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival said in a statement: ‘The Orchard will not be moving forward with the release of “I Love You, Daddy.”‘
In the film, C.K. plays a successful TV producer whose 17-year-old daughter begins a relationship with an older director.
It spawns a kind of crisis for C.K.’s character, who has his own issues with how he treats women.
Louis loses: The Orchard announced that it will no longer be releasing I Love You Daddy (CK and co-star Chloe Grace Moretz in the film above) in theaters on November 17, despite paying $5 million to distribute the movie
This comes one day after comedians Dana Min Goodman, Abby Schachner, Julia Wolov, and Rebecca Corry publicly alleged that the Emmy-winning actor pleasured himself in front of them or over the phone at some point during the past 15 years.
A fifth woman detailed similar allegations to the Times as well but was not identified.
C.K. has refused to respond to the story despite the drastic impact it is having on his professional career.
‘Can I ask you something?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He asked if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me.’
Outraged, Corry said she reminded Louis C.K that he had a daughter and a pregnant wife. ‘His face got red… and he told me he had issues,’ Corry said.
Courteney Cox and David Arquette were the executive producers on the unnamed show at the time and confirmed the alleged C.K incident to the Times. They had talked about halting production but Corry said she wanted to press ahead.
C.K. is among the latest Hollywood figures to be accused of misconduct in a wave that began when dozens of sexual harassment allegations were reported last month against film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Known for his candid, warts-and-all personal humor, which often includes talk of bodily fluids and sex, C.K. grew up outside Boston.
He performed stand-up sets in New York and eventually landed writing gigs on Conan O’Brien’s Late Night and David Letterman’s Late Show.
He went on to become the head writer of The Dana Carvey Show from 1995-96 and contributed to the animated TV Funhouse vignettes on Saturday Night Live.
He was a writer on The Chris Rock Show and voiced patients on the Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
He also wrote and directed the film Pootie Tang with Rock, an infamous bomb that is now a cult classic.
C.K.’s comedy writing and production tentacles spread throughout TV and film.
He’s credited as a creator of the Zach Galifianakis show Baskets, in its third season on FX, and of Adlon’s Better Things, now in its second season on FX.
He is also developing another series for FX called The Cops in which he’s set to star opposite Albert Brooks.
C.K. is an executive producer of comedian Tig Notaro’s Amazon series, One Mississippi.
In a second-season episode of her series One Mississippi, Tig Notaro had addressed the long-rumored allegations against C.K, who is listed as an exeuctive producer on the show.
The episode finds one of the show’s female characters, who works at a radio station, pitching an idea to her boss only to look over and discover that he is masturbating behind his desk.
The character then expresses a desire to leave but he urges her to stay, eventually ejaculating while sitting at his desk.
The female character then gets up and leaves and later discusses what happened with Notaro’s character, who points out that she was assaulted.
He starred in a Netflix special earlier this year that was nominated for two Emmy Awards.
FX said in a statement Thursday it was ‘obviously very troubled by the allegations.’
‘The network has received no allegations of misconduct by Louis C.K. related to any of our 5 shows produced together over the past 8 years,’ the statement said, adding, ‘the matter is currently under review.’
In a second-season episode of her series One Mississippi, Tig Notaro (above) had addressed the long-rumored allegations against C.K, who is listed as an exeuctive producer on the show
The episode (above) finds one of the show’s female characters pitching an idea to her boss only to look over and discover that he is masturbating behind his desk
His new film is incredibly similar to Woody Allen’s ‘Manhattan,’ with both movies featuring a relationship between a teenage high school student and older man. He has previously cited Allen and Bill Cosby as two of his comedy idols.
John Malkovich, 63, plays a legendary film director who is rumored to have molested a young girl decades earlier. C.K plays a successful TV producer whose 17-year-old daughter, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, begins a relationship with Malkovich.
Allegations of questionable sexual behavior have long dogged C.K.
Roseanne Barr said in a 2016 interview with The Daily Beast that she was ‘speaking up’ about claims and stories she has heard from people over the years about incidents of abuse before naming one person in a bombshell of an allegation.
‘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. Not just him, but a lot of them,’ alleged Barr.
‘And it’s just par for the course. It’s just sh** women have to put up with.’
Barr later said that she believed Louis C.K. is ‘about to get busted.’
Louis C.K. addressed those allegations in an interview with New York after he landed the cover of the magazine’s special issue on comedy back in 2016, with the interviewer asking how he responded to a Gawker story that detailed the same claims that Barr made in her interview.
The comedian managed to quickly change the subject after saying the story had no impact on him at the time.
‘I don’t care about that. That’s nothing to me. That’s not real.’
When pressed a bit later in the interview about his reluctance to comment on the story, he responded by saying: ‘Well, you can’t touch stuff like that. There’s one more thing I want to say about this, and it’s important: If you need your public profile to be all positive, you’re sick in the head.