Eliza Dushku Went Full Boston Chick on the Guys at CBS Who Sexually Harassed Her
One thing I’ve been meaning to post about but haven’t gotten around to has been the latest #MeToo fallout at CBS. And now that it’s not only brought down a hugely powerful business titan, costing him tens of millions of dollars, it’s also affected Masshole smokeshow/actress/huge Boston sports fan/my personal friend Eliza Dushku, this seems as good a time as any.
It started out in typical fashion. An entertainment industry mogul with massive amounts of power – in this case, network CEO Les Moonves – being accused of telling actresses he’d make them stars if they’d bang him. Basically the standard operating procedure of power brokers from Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer to Charlie Rose and half of congress, probably.
So Moonves was being pushed out. Told to hit the bricks. One little snag in that was that he was due to hit those bricks with a $120 million severance package, which CBS didn’t want to pay if they didn’t have to. So they hired an outside firm to find out exactly how much he was creeping on the employees and potential employees. For 120 million reasons. And found this out:
Investigators wrote that they had found that Mr. Moonves “received oral sex from at least 4 CBS employees under circumstances that sound transactional and improper to the extent that there was no hint of any relationship, romance, or reciprocity (especially given what we know about his history of more or less forced oral sex with women with whom he has no ongoing relationship).” …
Investigators wrote that they had received “multiple reports” about a network employee who was “on call” to perform oral sex on Mr. Moonves.
“A number of employees were aware of this and believed that the woman was protected from discipline or termination as a result of it,” the lawyers wrote. “Moonves admitted to receiving oral sex from the woman, his subordinate, in his office, but described it as consensual.”
Which apparently is a violation of company policy. Not just of CBS, but I’d imagine of any company. I guess it’s one thing if someone in your workplace chooses to come into your office now and again to give you head out of the goodness of their heart. Because you’re dating or just because you’re a great job and deserve the perk. It’s another thing entirely if that person is on the payroll as a professional CEO Blower, paid for with company funds and getting the same health bennies and 401K as her non-blowjibber co-workers. Which is an important, if subtle, legal distinction. One that I hope was worth $120 million to Moonves and his wife Julie Chen, because it cost him that severance package.
Anyway, the investigation led to the revelation that the show Bull, one I’ve never watched an am only aware of because CBS runs on average about 75 promos for it during every Patriots game, paid Eliza Dushku $9.5 million. For three episodes. They had promised to make her a series regular, apparently in hopes that guys like me with zero interest in ever tuning in might consider doing so if there was the promise of seeing Eliza Dushku. But things went sideways in a hurry:
Her time on the set began promisingly. The show’s star, Michael Weatherly — a mainstay of CBS’s prime-time lineup for 15 years — seemed friendly. And a producer and writer on “Bull,” Glenn Gordon Caron, told Ms. Dushku she would be more than a love interest.
Then came a series of comments that made Ms. Dushku uncomfortable. In front of the cast and crew, Mr. Weatherly remarked on her appearance, and made a rape joke and a comment about a threesome. Shortly after Ms. Dushku confronted the star about his behavior, she was written off the show. She believed her time on “Bull” came to a sudden end as a result of retaliation.
The $9.5 million settlement was confidential. And stayed that way, with neither side talking. Until Weatherly and Caron went around basically portraying Dushku as an uptight snowflake who couldn’t take a joke. And found out the hard way you do not fuck with a Boston chick and expect her to just take it.
Dushku, who’s back in Boston now finishing her college degree, flipped these guys the State Bird of Massachusetts in an Op-Ed in the Globe and left no meat on their bones:
In explaining his bad behavior, Weatherly, who plays Dr. Bull, claimed I didn’t get his attempt at humor. That’s how a perpetrator rationalizes when he is caught. For the record, I grew up in Boston with three older brothers and have generally been considered a tomboy. I made a name for myself playing a badass vampire slayer turned tough LA cheerleader; I have worked with numerous leading men, including Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio , even CBS’s own David Boreanaz. I can handle a locker room. I have been on Howard Stern and was hired by Kevin Smith for a film where I wore a black leather cat suit and played a member of an international diamond-thief-gang-ring. I do not want to hear that I have a “humor deficit” or can’t take a joke. I did not overreact. I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired.
Weatherly harassed me from early on. The tapes show his offer to take me to his “rape van, filled with all sorts of lubricants and long phallic things.” 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. He made the threesome remark to me about himself and me in a room full of people. Minutes later, a crew member sidled up next to me and, with a smirk, said in a low voice, “I’m with Bull. I wanna have a threesome with you too.” For weeks, Weatherly was recorded making sexual comments, and was recorded mimicking penis jousting with a male costar — this directly on the heels of the “threesome” proposal — and another time referring to me repeatedly as “legs.” He regularly commented on my “ravishing” beauty, following up with audible groans, oohing and aahing. As the tapes show, he liked to boast about his sperm and vasectomy reversals (“I want you to know, Eliza, I have powerful swimmers”). Weatherly had a habit of exaggerated eye-balling and leering at me; once, he leaned into my body and inhaled, smelling me in a dramatic swoon. As was caught on tape, after I flubbed a line, he shouted in my face, “I will take you over my knee and spank you like a little girl.” …
What is hardest to share is the way he made me feel for 10 to 12 hours per day for weeks. This was classic workplace harassment that became workplace bullying.
By way of full disclosure, I’m not neutral when it comes to Eliza Dushku. Like I said, we are close, personal friends. With the kind of relationship that can only come from meeting one time when I was working the Jimmy Fund Radiothon and she came by to help out and I fanboyed her about how the Irish Rose and I are huge fans going back to her debut on Buffy and I shook her hand and she said “I’m a hugger” and we developed that bond which will last a lifetime.
But even if we weren’t buds for life, I would have her side. Mostly because she is exactly the polar opposite of someone who’s looking to be offended. The definition of someone who can take a sexual joke. Like she said, she’s done Stern and worn a leather catsuit and posed in a bikini in FHM. Hell, she should’ve won an Emmy for playing the horny Grav Maga instructor on The League:
If you’re making Stephen Rannazzisi squeeze your tits to get a laugh on a sitcom, you’ve earned a lifetime exemption from being accused of having a “humor deficit.”
What she describes isn’t just someone innocently going for laughs. It’s classic workplace abuse. I’ve never acted but I know show business is tough enough when you have the support of people around you. I only work with comics I like, so I can’t imagine trying to perform with someone who’s actively trying to tear you down. Plus I’m a guy, so I can’t relate to what a miserable experience it must be to have to work face to face with someone who spends 12 hours a day reminding you he wants to stick his dick in you. That’s not “taking a joke.” It’s bullying. (Bull-ying?) And I’m glad it cost somebody 10 million bucks.
So go ahead an rip me if you will. I’m standing by my long time friend I talked once three years ago. #ImWithEliza