CBS Board Of Directors To Meet Amid Sexual Assault Claims Against CEO
NEW YORK (CBSNEWS.COM) - The regularly scheduled gathering of CBS' board of directors on Monday comes after a New Yorker report Friday, alleging that "six women who had professional dealings" with CEO Les Moonves said he sexually harassed them between the 1980s and early 2000s. The report also said that 19 current and former employees claim former CBS News chairman and current "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager "allowed harassment" in the news division.
Both men have denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the Independent Directors of CBS said Friday they are investigating the claims.
In one alleged incident, actor and producer Illeana Douglas said she went to Moonves' office for a script meeting in 1997, where she says the executive held her down on his couch, "violently kissing" her. She said, "the physicality of it was horrendous."
Moonves, 68, acknowledges the kiss, but denies sexual assault.
Douglas believes the alleged incident "derailed any future career I would have had at CBS." Late Saturday, she added: "Real change will occur when I can walk through the front doors of CBS and resume the creative relationship that was so tragically cut short."
The New Yorker story goes on to allege that six former CBS employees said Fager would get drunk at company parties and "touch employees in ways that made them uncomfortable."
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