Les Moonves needs a better defense than this!
The now-former CBS chief executive officer was pilloried in the press on Monday, one day after six new sexual assault and sexual misconduct allegations against him surfaced in a new piece in The New Yorker.
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And while the process for having Moonves officially step down from CBS began in earnest last night, the embattled C.E.O. is still clinging to hope that it’ll all go away, calling the allegations “untrue” and denying them just as he denied the FIRST half-dozen sexual misconduct allegations to come out against him a couple months ago.
Well, one accuser isn’t buying it at all.
Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb went on live television this morning (on CBS rival network ABC, no less) to discuss her accusation against Moonves and his response, and she didn’t hold back.
Speaking to the folks at GMA, Golden-Gottlieb said of Moonves’ denials that he never used his position to “hinder the advancement or careers” of the women (below):
“That’s a joke, it’s so bad. Of course he did. He took my whole career.”
Golden-Gottlieb featured prominently in this weekend’s New Yorker expose by writer Ronan Farrow, for she was the one who literally filed a police report against Moonves last year over an alleged incident where he forced her to perform oral sex in the 1980s.
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The LAPD reportedly found the accusation credible enough to investigate on its own merit, but declined to do so because the statute of limitations had past on sexual assault.
Nevertheless, with lawyer Gloria Allred by her side, the TV exec Golden-Gottlieb told her story again to GMA today (below):
“I needed the job. I had two children that I was responsible for and I was frightened. He really hurt my career. Right after he appeared naked, he came running into my office and did this whole thing that I didn’t send the memo to anybody and then he picked me up and threw me against the wall. I just laid on the floor and cried; I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.”
Wow…
It’s understandable, then, that she went to the police — even all these years later — to attempt to gain at least some closure, as she acknowledged on the show this morning (below):
“I just wanted to get it off of me and to share it with someone … I have gone through so many years and I would like him to be accountable for what he did.”
One way or another, it really looks like he will be forced to take some accountability — and without the typical business exec golden parachute, too!
At least we can all take solace in that!!
[Image via WENN.]
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