In previous jobs, I’ve been mistreated by male bosses, but never to any kind of Harvey Weinstein or Louis CK level. One of the worst bosses I ever had was a terrible homophobe who regularly used “f-got” in casual conversation. When I told him flat-out I would appreciate it if he didn’t use that language in front of me, he first asked me if I was gay, then he demoted me (I sh-t you not) and I quit soon after. So I used that memory as a “what if” exercise with this Louis CK thing. What if that former boss “came clean” about the extent to which he was in the wrong. What if he validated every complaint I had. What if he admitted everything in a public forum. How would I feel? How would you feel? A slight bit of relief, because at least people know you’re not crazy and/or a fantasist? And then once the sense of relief dissipates, wouldn’t you still be angry? I think I would probably be just as angry. Anyway, Louis CK issued a lengthy statement in which he admits everything. Here’s the statement:
“I want to address the stories told to the New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not. These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my d-ck without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your d-ck isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.”
“I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position. I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it. There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.”
“I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work. The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with whose professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years.”
“I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother. I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen. Thank you for reading.”
Meh. Granted, this is better than Harvey Weinstein’s series of reactions. It’s also better than Jeremy Piven and Brett Ratner’s threats to sue the women they already sexually harassed and abused. But we’re setting the bar pretty low, right? I mean, that’s literally the best thing I can say about this – Louis CK is not AS bad as Harvey Weinstein. But to be clear, Louis CK is still a garbage person who misused and abused his power, his image, his authority. Admitting that he did so doesn’t change the fact that HE DID SO, nor does it change the fact that he lied about it for years. It doesn’t change the fact that he surrounded himself with people who covered up for him and intimidated the women he abused. It doesn’t change the fact that this was his M.O. for what? Two decades.
What else? He’s been dropped by his manager, his agency and his publicist. His management company is doing an internal review of this situation, likely to assess their liability, I would think. FX has completely cut ties with Louis CK too. His longtime collaborator and co-producer Pamela Adlon released a statement too.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Louis advantage is that he wasnt accused of rape like basically all others and he was the only one putting out a long statement. All the others weirdly profit from Weinstein and Tobak being that extreme.
I dont want him to ever come back but he probably has the best chances.
“I have been remorseful…” So, he’s not anymore?
He’s sorry to his family and managers, but not one true apology to the victims. And too much emphasis on how they “admired” him.
Yeah, big whoop. He’s only remorseful since it came out in print. Not only that, but did you catch how many times he said he’s “admired”? I lost count due to rising nausea 🤢 what an a$$wipe.
If you watched his tv show or caught his act on Netflix, you know he is a pretty shit person. I don’t understand how people watched his show and thought he was a nice guy acting..
How are there so many crap people at the top? It is like you have to be a morally questionable person to have a rags to riches story in entertainment
“It is like you have to be a morally questionable person to have a rags to riches story in entertainment ”
Welcome to capitalism. Its not just in entertainment. The system rewards and demands you to act terribly to everyone else.
Agreed, his comedy reflects his character. I remember him telling a story of exposing himself the a neighbourhood girl with down syndrome, but he used more offensive terms to describe her…..
If anyone is in any doubt about his character have a look at his Opie and Antony appearances on youtube. He says some abhorrent things. He’s had alot of it removed since he’s become an Orson Welles wannabe.
He underlines the fact that he got consent. But he’s still fucking lying, because those two women said they were screaming “no” when he started to undress. Then, FOUR TIMES, he describes the women as “admirers” of his that he took advantage of, infantilizing them and making them sound like spurned lovers, almost, instead of grown professionals he assaulted. This guy is manipulative af. He might have the best chance but I think he’d do the most damage by getting it. I can see him doing interviews and detailing some intellectualized version of his idiopathy, lapping it up while people tell him he’s “so brave” for being honest, probably getting off as much to exposing his psychology as he did by exposing his genitalia. Make no mistake, this guy is dangerous, and if he makes a come-back, he’ll remember who took him down. Louis C.K. is the truly dangerous one here and because he’s not black-and-white people will give him permission. He’s the missing stair friend who, when caught, cries about how much he wants to be punished in order to manipulate people into forgiveness, resulting in none of the consequences he cries about wanting. He’s the abuser you take to couple’s counseling and learns from it how to more effectively hide his abuse.
On the first read, I thought it was great that a guy was finally admitting guilt straight out, and the only thing I caught was how many times he said the women “admired” him. But after reading your comment, ppp, I really do agree with you, and his statement seems super creepy and awful. (By reading everyone’s takes on these issues, I’m learning to think with more discernment. Goodbye, old brainwashing!!)
Yeah, talk about narcissistic, self-serving bullshit…
“I asked first.” Err no, you just stated what you were going to do. And not even that half the time.
I can’t believe some people think this was a real apology. It’s full of self pity and lame justifications.
Excellent summation that encapsulates some of what I felt as I was reading his statement. Coming next, his redemption tour and unfortunately, many people will lap it up.
To play the other side a bit, I took his addressing them as admirers or that they admired him as an assertion that he played into the power dynamic he had, knowingly or unknowingly, and that he realizes that now. It ties in to when he said he ‘asked’ them, he also understands now that it’s not really a question when you hold power over someone. It’s a shitty thing to do and he’s got a lot of problems.
This would all come across as a more sincere apology if it came out before the NYT article. But in a way the admission is a relief. His victims won’t be painted as crazy and there won’t be a chorus of ‘Women DO lie sometimes though!” and “Innocent until proven guilty!” It’s a shame a man coming out and saying “The allegations against me are true” is what it takes to silence all the usual what-about-the-men-isms.
How about he compensates the victims financially to prove he’s truly sorry he has plenty of cash
That would be really nice.
Because that would imply he can undo the hurt with a bank transfer. He can’t. He can’t mitigate the hurt with money. Not unless that’s what his victims specifically want. And even then, I don’t think it mitigates the consequences of his actions.
It also sets a dynamic where rich men can mitigate their actions with money whereas poor men would presumably face different punishment – like different tiers of assailant. I’m not sure I’m being very clear, but thisbhits awfully close to home and I’m struggling to express myself.
No, but he can sure as hell make a several million dollar donation to RAINN to help other women abused by his peer group of predators.
Money proves a lot. Words are cheap. These words come at a time when refusing to take responsibility would more categorically end his career than ‘fessing up in full, given his demographic. If he’s really come to Jesus on the consequences of his actions, then he needs to start showing it by helping fund the necessary support for other women.
And it’s a partial (and at times self-adulatory) admission, for the reasons set out below by other posters. As Kaiser says, this guy didn’t rape anyone, hasn’t lied about doing it, and is expressing sympathy for his victims. And the bar’s set so low we’re considering the number of cookies?
I think he also has to take steps to make sure he can’t ever do it again. Not promise that he won’t ever do it again, but actually make it so he actually can’t.
He should never be alone with a woman again (unless she signs a waiver that she knows what his problems are….). He needs designated reliable people with him who will intervene and report and protect the other person if he tries anything. If it were easy for him to stop doing such things on his own, he would have done it long ago. His behavior was a sign of deep disturbance in our culture. It was not even within the ugly range of acceptable harassment of women by men. And it was criminal.
Basically, he needs to have supervised visitation with all women forever.
that would be EXPECTED.
Two things: a writer on Slate pointed out this “asked first” thing is BS because at least a few people said no and he did it anyway. Second, it seems disingenuous to make this about personal admiration. They were scared for their careers. Did he ever do this to a non-comedian, out of curiosity?
Yeah that’s what I was wondering: how many women were like “no, I’ll pass thanks” when he offered to whip out his wang.
These men are no different than the creepy dude jacking off in the corner of a subway train–they’re all just common pervs who happened to become famous.
” a writer on Slate pointed out this “asked first” thing is BS because at least a few people said no and he did it anyway. ”
He was also operating in very special circumstances. A comedy duo being asked by another comedian “Hey can I get my dick out?” does sound a lot more like a joke than doing the same in an office.
That yes is not really consent.
Good point.
Exactly consent under coercion due to the power imbalance that’s being played out can never really be consent. So many if these wankers have a real problem with ‘consent’ yet it’s such a simple word.
Yes exactly, totally disingenuous of him to say he had power over those women because ”they admired him”…. um, no, they needed to pay the rent, pay for healthcare, etc. They were lower status than him, more junior comedians/employees with less status and power. He’s a bully and a coward. I totally agree with Kaiser’s assessment, the bar is set so low that we’re saying ”well at LEAST he’s not a rapist and at least he admitted to it”, uggh. And yes nice try at the ”asking permission” rationale, it’s like holding a gun to someones head then asking permission to hold the gun to their head. I totally believe they didn’t give permission, or if they remained silent they were just in shock and stunned, it probably happened so fast.
It is gross that he tried to make it seem like there was some consent. Asking means nothing if the person says no or is too stunned by the question to respond.
Exactly. It makes the whole thing worthless.
Also the power balance alone makes that yes BS. If these people are worried about their jobs and being blackballed they will hesitate. Or run. Either way the onus is on him.
It’s whats so egregious about these stories coming out. These men wielded a large amount of power to prey on victims and then silence them
The asked first makes me want to vomit. However the personal admiration part *is* important. It makes you let down your guard and you trust that person. Afterwards it makes you trust your judgement and leaves you closed off to otherwise good men. Happens also post date rape.
Totally agree the personal/professional admiration is important, just think it’s a part of the story he’s highlighting to obscure the more coercive aspects of what he did.
How about asking, did he ever do this to a MAN? No, only to women. Women who were anxious for their careers/jobs. What BS.
The emphasis he put on how ‘admired’ he was by the women was odd to me too.
Well, at least he admitted the truth publicly and his victims’ credibility has been proven. Maybe that fact will give those women some closure.
He only admitted it when he was cornered. He previously had denied the allegations and dismissed them as just “rumors” and “not true”.
Actually, he aggressively fought them behind the scenes. His Manager Dave Becky was threatening women on his behalf. He knew all about it. He should be fired too.
It’s only because of the weight of the NYT that he was exposed.
I read somewhere he’d been quietly paying people off, no doubt NDA’s were obtained. This is all damage limitation.
A phony plea for redemption strategy to reset his scumbag image. Sorrynotsorry, but he is a depraved creep who enjoyed using his power to see if he could denigrate and break women’s spirit and lives.
He had his chance to live a good life. Now go back home and get some mental health treatment. However, I don’t foresee any redemption for him.
He will never get any more work, or people to work with him. His career is over.
He can always work Republican affairs. They love pedophiles, rapists, harrassers, liars, and all around shit people.
Sadly, he will. Even Cosby got jobs after the women started coming forward.
He *shouldn’t*, but sadly this will die down, and in a year or two! He will be back.
My optimism that society is more “woke” now about harassment just isn’t there yet. It’s still “a man’s world” until women take some of the top roles and level the playing field.
He should not get any second chances. He was luckier and more fortunate than most comedians could ever dream to be yet it wasn’t enough. With all his hard work and power, he decided to use it to indulge his fetishes on women in no position to refuse.
It is the same mentality of a rapist because the point is the same; humiliate women using sexuality and enjoy their powerlessness and discomfort.
He left people he called friends in the worst positions morally and professionally. Not once has he owned everything and genuinely apologized. I see no apology. This would have had meaning say a few years ago BEFORE he was busted and could have handled this privately, made amends, made serious efforts to understand his compulsions and change.
Imagine how different this would all be. Forgiveness comes from sincerity, and everyone is “sincere” when everything is on the line. This isn’t an epiphany because he ALWAYS knew it was wrong or he wouldn’t have lied. How arrogant to be asked and still deny it and keep offending. SO he knew it was known but figured he was untouchable and counted on the rape culture to help him get away with it.
He didn’t think about his family or the careers of people who worked on his projects now and in the future. He killed residuals for everyone else who worked on those shows and possible future earnings. The wealthiest man is set for life and is the only one who gets the chance to make amends everyone else still has to suffer in silence and pay a more significant price for his selfish actions.
Forgive him and set a precedent and blueprint for predators to follow suit and issue similar tripe. Men are desperate to find a key to save their careers so that they don’t have to feel the exact price of being a disgusting skeeve. Let others suffer but not them.
The bar is in the same place, and that is already low enough. If they can’t reach and get it, then it is their fault, and I refuse to “at least” any single one of them. We have been disrespected and taught to accept less and that any contrition worded right is enough. Don’t be a bitch and not accept his apology. Something is wrong with the US if we refuse.
Well said, Magnoliarose! You said it all perfectly 👏🏻
👏👏👏👏👏
Exactly. He knew it was wrong, but he did it anyway. That’s the worst part about this whole thing for me. Different from Weinstein who seems entirely bereft of moral compass and likely thought he was entitled to do what he did to his victims.
Well said, my friend.
Yes, perfectly stated 👏
Applause!
“It is the same mentality of a rapist because the point is the same; humiliate women using sexuality and enjoy their powerlessness and discomfort”
THIS especially. Underscoring that it is not about sex but about power.
What this was wasn’t an apology, but an explanation, and a piss poor one at that.
Mansplaining, ugh.
The part that threw me off about this apology is him saying he thought his behavior was okay because “he asked first.” At what point is masturbating in front of someone or asking if they want to see your privates okay at work? I’m just confused. I’m confused. Power or no power over them. WHY would you do that (especially at work)?!
I know. It shows how warped his mind is. How he thought asking would in any way make it ok is beyond me. He’s a sick guy.
He is sick. One of his comedian friends Jim Norton, was saying in a similar way, that’s how creeps in subway’s think when they’re rubbing their erections against you, that they think cause the woman isn’t saying anything they must be enjoying it. Whatever warped way they get to excuse themselves they’ll use.
SERIOUSLY. It’s not normal to ask your colleagues or acquaintances if you can take your dick out and jerk off in front of them. There is something very wrong that he doesn’t get that fundamental, underlying concept.
Seriously… any men out there.. random women do not ever want to see your dick!
There, that shuts that down.
Stop showing us via sxt and in person in other inappropriate situations. It’s not ‘worth a shot just in case she is into it’. Stop this now.
Plenty of people seek for casual random sexual encounters online, and they request nude pictures of their bodies and genitalia, but it is done by adults in a consensual manner. It is offensive especially for women to receive sexual pictures or sexual text messages they haven’t asked for. My point is that it is okay if the parties are okay with it.
Yeah I’d meant that through ‘random’ but the context wasn’t clear perhaps
OMG, Yes! +100! What is it that these men are thinking?
I go to my place of employment to be paid for completing my assigned work. I work because I need money to live. And that is all. I think this applies to just about every single human reporting to their job. Zero people go to work to be put in a spot like this. ZERO.
And guys, a smile or a hello doesn’t mean we want to have sex with you.
nor does it mean we want to meet your todger.
It is better than some but, as you say, Kaiser, it’s such a low bar. Perhaps more accurately described as less awful than some?
If only one of them could cut the verbal diarrhoea and stop asserting that they are going to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of their misdeeds and crimes as the wonderful person they (still) believe they really are. If only one of them could just say, “I did these things. This makes me a shit person. I’m sorry,” and then STOP TALKING.
I dunno, it’s pretty piss poor, imo. he did use a lot of words, but he said very little. He doesn’t even actually apologize, and he mentions twice how deeply admired he is. Nowhere does he admit power imbalance, and he poses it as mutual admiration, and then paragraphs of concern for his business partners.
A sincere apology includes, I’m sorry, it was my fault, how can I fix it. An abusive apology consists of I’m sorry, but here is my excuse.
A narcissist apology is
That didn’t happen.
And if it did happen, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was that bad, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is a big deal, that’s not my fault.
And if it was my fault, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did mean it…
You deserved it.
Perfectly stated narcissist apology! I was married to one for 9 years…the arguments always circled around and around to: “If I did it, (which I don’t think I did) it’s not my fault and I didn’t mean it, (he would say: “I never intended harm.”) which left me utterly confused and feeling like things were my fault. It became his pass for everything. Confusing, manipulative, word-twisting garbage!
I’m not sure that it’s phony, he may genuinely regret what he did. But does any woman really care about his feelings or the feelings of any of these creeps at this point?
It all rings hollow.
Tbh I can’t feel anything for them at all except revulsion. I think what they are all really sorry about is getting caught. Not one of them stopped voluntarily, to seek treatment or whatever and if they hadn’t been called out they would all still be abusing women whenever an opportunity presented itself.
He was calling women liars two months ago about this very thing, so this apology… I don’t buy it.
Yep.
A month ago, he was still publicly saying it was all BS…definitely a hollow statement.
I don’t think he regrets it. He legit called these accusations a lie a year or two ago. And refused to answer questions when the allegations popped up. He didn’t have remorse then and I doubt he has any now. It’s only because his rep and his money are in free fall
I have no doubt that he regrets it. Not because he feels terrible for victimizing these women, but because he sabotaged his entire career over this.
I can’t imagine that he’s pleased with his past decisions at this moment. Not that I feel even slightly sorry for him.
Kitten, I’m more inclined to think he is sitting there in an absolute rage that he’s expected to modify his behaviour for women. Harvey Weinstein is probably in a worse rage, more Mel Gibson when shunned by Hollywood, level of rage. Whoever it was in the comments who called him more dangerous than ever, was right.
Exactly. Rings hollow. Well said.
I think he’s deeply damaged. This topic comes up time and again in his work, and on some level, I think he was daring people to catch him out. I think that alone, the statement rings hollow, but in the context of his work, this suggests that out of all the vile men being outed right now, he might actually benefit from some serious therapy.
That said, it’s not our job to absolve him, and the “I’m so sorry, I have issues and hate myself” is also a classic abuser tactic. So, don’t expect me to be sending out e-vites to the pity party just yet.
Yeah I was wondering the same thing–if he wanted to be caught on some level. Because this predatory pattern isn’t sustainable forever and ultimately there’s an inevitable self-sabotaging element to it.
Aside from his victims and family, I feel worst for women who followed his career and supported him along the way–both colleagues and fans alike. They must feel so conned. Ugh.
Great observations, T.Fanty.
Me, me, me, I, I, I.
That’s what jumped out at me, too. Comics tend to be very focused on themselves, but this is stretching it more than a bit too far.
He’s only remorseful because it’s all out. If he could still hide he would and act the same. So glad this entire balloon has exploded in Hollywood. I love watching the men at work squirm because they know they need to be careful with not only their actions but words too.
Oops posted pretty much the same thing above before I read you post, soz.
It’s all hollow bulls**t. While I’m pleased his victims weren’t physically touched it’s the same power, ego, narcissism as the others. If this is your fetish? Well guess what you piece of garbage, take some of your millions and pay one of the many professionals available to watch. In the circles you run in escorts and call girls are not exactly unusual. To force this on your co-workers and colleagues makes you a sex offender just like the others. He needed that extra jolt of power to get off. Disgusting.
I will say I am unbelievably sorry for his young daughters. Imagine going to school after this story broke. They are blameless and yet the humiliation will be profound. What a terrible father.
All very well said. He is disgusting and his statement means nothing.
I was propositioned by a recently divorced, much older relative who offered me money. I was furious and I told him to hire a prostitute, which for some reason really insulted him, but he was okay with turning me into one? I told my ex what his uncle had done, and he was proud of him for still hustling at his age:(
He was ‘proud’ of him for still hustling WTF, I would have been enraged, thank goodness that bozo is your ‘ex’, Jeeze you deserve better than that, we all deserve better than that.
Wow Lady D I’m so glad that he is your Ex because like Frisbee said you deserves so much better then that.
He really didn’t know about the power dynamic until “too late in life”? That is disingenuous at best or the worst lie in this whole statement at worst. This is a bunch of self serving garbage that most people will eat up. Also, Jon Stewart is canceled.
Oh no – what did Jon Stewart do?
He was asked point blank about the allegations.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1570990/Jon-Stewart-laughs-off-Louis-CK-harassment-allegations-in-2016.html
He doesn’t get a pass but he admits it. It’s more than Harvey Weinstein, Bryan Singer, Jeremy Piven, Brett Ratner & James Toback. Maybe he truly regrets his actions, maybe he doesn’t. Some sociopaths look around them & mimic responses so it’s hard to know to if this is if him empathizing or an attempt to. It appears to be real but most men wouldn’t whip out their d*cks & masturbate in front of women, even if they “asked” first…it’s kind of suspect. Louis CK is probably one of the most depraved predators out there because he caused a lot of damage without even touching a woman. He now thinks admitting to it, apologizing for it and simply being quiet for awhile it will go away that it will. Hopefully it won’t.
Apologizing after he’s been backed into a corner and has no other chance at saving his career is too little, too late. The language he uses in this statement makes it very clear that his primary intention is to distance himself from the man who committed these actions and in doing so remain marketable; “At the time,” “What I’ve learned,” “I have been remorseful.”
It reads as “What I did was awful, but I’m not the man who did those awful things anymore, so please feel ok continuing to enjoy my work because I really don’t want this to end my career.”
If he had already come to the realization that his actions were morally unacceptable, damaging, and criminal, where was the apology when that realization happened? He spent years ignoring and shutting down anyone who brought these rumors up in interviews. Surely if he had already seen the light and grown into a better man sometime in the past–as his statement implies–he would have taken or created an opportunity to address his “mistakes” and attempt to apologize to the women he had hurt.
He may be “better” than Weinstein because he isn’t as heinous an offender (that we know of), but never forget that this is the man who stood on stage and won over many female fans with lines like this: “How do women still go out with guys, when you consider the fact that there is no greater threat to women than men? We’re the number one threat! To women! Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women. We’re the worst thing that ever happens to them!”
He framed himself as being the rare, insightful man who understood what most do not, and then exited stage left, went back to his hotel, and whipped out his dick infront of young, upcoming comediennes who felt trapped by proximity and unable to refuse because of his power in their industry. Don’t give this sack of sh*t a soft pass because he came out with an apology that was ultimately more about protecting himself than anything else.
This! I was a big Louis CK admirer for years until I started to hear rumors through blind items ( around 1 or 2 years ago?). The insightful lines in his standup like those you mention made him, for a time, seem like a woke man who saw the BS women have to put up with, artfully highlighting it in his routine. I saw him as a feminist! Gah, I feel like an idiot — although when the rumors hit, and seemed to point directly at him, my fandom quickly died. But still, I feel like, What did I miss in his routines? There had to be stuff there that pointed this way. All of the recent #metoo information has taught me I need to be harder on the men in my life and in my media choices, because I’m probably giving passes to others, too, and most likely (not) seeing some bad behavior going on right in front of me.
Good point about being harder on media choices.
There’s a lot of talk of Hollywood should do this or cancel that guy, but ultimately, they got their money and power from us.
No viewers, no power for these guys.
My problem with everyone’s response to all of these sexual assaults is people tend to treat them all the same. Some are dramatically worse than others. Plus it is helpful to the victim to have the abusers admit they did it too. Even if their apology isn’t perfect, we want them to do this. I think all should be punished, but appropriate punishment to the crime they committed, not the same. Not saying we should say yeah good for Louis CK, but this is one small step better than some of the others.
This wasn’t a apology nor was it sincere. Only last month he was still denying he did it and calling these women liars. Why should we give any type of credit to C.K for saying word in hope of salvaging his career.
We don’t want fake apologies that give after being called out, from men looking to save their careers
Denying anonymous rumors is not the same as denying testimony by women who made the accusations in public. I would not expect him to admit to rumors whether he were innocent or guilty. But he did the right thing here – he said that the public accusers and the NYT were absolutely telling the truth. That saves a lot of time and energy for everybody involved.
His statement is a good beginning, regardless of flaws, but he has a long way to go.
We have to start somewhere. I’ve been around lawyers a bit and they always say to not admit anything. He at least admitted the truth, at least his victims have that.
.
“I was admired” “these women admired me” “the level of their admiration to me” .. god complex much?
They admired me, therefore they allowed it to happen. Their admiration enabled me. If they hadn’t admired me, I wouldn’t have done it. Urgh …
Right, it’s not that he ambushed them and they stayed quiet out of fear for their careers -it’s that they admired him.
Does Louis really think that these women were too in awe of him to tell him no rather than that they were scared of him? He’s not even taking responsibility and admitting what really happened in his supposed apology.
He’s refusing to acknowledge the real dynamics of how he took their sense of physical and financial safety away from them and pretending what happened had a different if still inappropriate tone so that he can claim he didn’t understand what he really did. The fact that it happened multiple times and he denied it for years and obsessed about it in his work clearly shows he’s lying.
In an apology to one of the women, he talked about shoving a woman into a bathroom. Did that woman also just admire him too much to say anything? Louis’ apology is crap.
I disagree that he admits everything in this apology. He minimizes and misstates what he actually did, the actual economic power he wielded over these women, the fact that they didn’t all consent, and the fact that he physically blocked at least one of them. In fact, this apology is a bit evil because it’s all some people know about his actions so they don’t think what he did is any big deal.
I totally agree. He’s deliberately misconstruing the nature of what happened in order to minimize it. So that the response will focus on an apology and claim of not knowing better. He’s running away from his actions and not taking real responsibility.
There’s no actual apology. He never says I’m sorry.
“NOW I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned YESTERDAY the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly…”
You’re just now catching on, Louis CK? Roseanne Barr called you out more than a year ago. Tig Notaro called you out over and over. And what did you say about these accusations? This: “I don’t care about that. That’s nothing to me. That’s not real.”
What did you tell the NY Times only LAST MONTH? Here’s an excerpt:
“If you actually participate in a rumor, you make it bigger and you make it real.” So it’s not real? “No.” he responded. “They’re rumors, that’s all that is.”
Nice gaslighting there. You knew all along it was real, and you flat-out lied. You didn’t just come to Jesus yesterday. Where is that part in your faux apology?
So happy to see that the majority of you on here are not buying his brand of bullshit.
My aunt managed a very popular comedy club when I was young and I would hang out in her office after school and do homework and – more often, I’ll admit – listen to music on my Discman and read extra-curricular books in the afternoons before someone else would come to pick me up. I met many comedians when they would come in to check out the space before a gig.
Louis was nice when I met him, and I remember liking him because of how genuine his laugh seemed when I told my perfunctory child neglect joke. I’m sure no one here would be surprised at how many comedians are jerks in real life, so it sucks that he’s garbage person, but I’ve never not believed the rumors.
I’m hardly ever surprised by the horrible things people do, nor was I even back then. People are awful lot. People are good a lot, but they’re awful about just as much. But if he wanted this statement to be a little less awful, perhaps he should have actually included the words ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I apologize’ instead of writing an op-ed about his feelings.
A couple of things. First, this was not an apology because nowhere in that statement does he say he’s sorry. He’s “remorseful, he regrets…” but he did not say he’s sorry. He also doesn’t discuss how this has affected the women in his life, nor does he say how he will make amends to all these women who he’s traumatized. Yes, he wrote a very nice little note talking about how he’s reflected on his behavior, how he ASKED these women if he can show them his dick before whipping it out (how polite, right?) , and yes, at least he didn’t raped them.
Remorseful is actually a synonym for sorry. Check the dictionary. So he has indeed said he’s sorry.
It’s true that he doesn’t yet understand the true impact of his actions. But that doesn’t mean he never will.
“Sorry I got caught but they just liked me so much…”
I’m curious about one thing regarding Louis CK. Seems from the NYT article at least that his thing really was asking women to watch him masturbate and if they said no, that was it. Have we heard any accusations of him forcing himself on someone or threatening to ruin careers a la Harvey Weinstein?
I ask this not to defend or excuse Louis CK, because I’m doing neither. But unless there are more hidden victims with worse stories out there, seems to me that this is the first case we’ve seen so far with a guy with a real sexual perversion problem that needs therapy, but didn’t cross the line into actual criminal behavior, so to say.
What bothers me about his apology is that he’s making it seem like a guy taking his dick out in front of women he barely knows is not unusual or deviant behavior, is just the fact that he was famous and in a position of power that makes it bad. And that he learned too late in life that it’s not appropriate to be asking that question? How do you not learn by your adulthood how to properly behave? And the worst part is I’ve seen so many people (mostly men) saying that he’s career has been ruined over behavior in his personal life that’s not such an aberration. The fact that so many normalize this is scary.
I don’t know of anyone who’s normalizing his behavior, except him.
You’re lucky you haven’t seen any then, I’ve read a lot of whiners on social media that poor Louis is getting his career ruined for doing something all men do (according to them)
One of his victims recounted that she said no, he did it anyway and blocked the door when she tried to leave. This is what Weinstein did, too.
He also apologized to one woman in person earlier, including for pushing her into a bathroom, which he hadn’t done to her, which suggests he had done it to someone else but had so many victims that he couldn’t remember the specifics of what he did to who.
Also note that in all these situations, you have no idea what he’s going to do and how far he’s going to go. Imagine that shock and fear.
“Not Weinstein level” is an abhorrent “I have black friends” type of new minimizing defence/excuse for this kind of wildly inappropriate and aggressive behaviour.
There is a difference between Weinstein & Louis CK..at least that we know of…so far no allegations of sexual assault. What Louis CK has done is inappropriate & wrong but it’s not assault unfortunately. He might be worse than Weinstein, though. There’s definitely an argument to be made here about the level of control Louis CK was trying to assert & it’s mind boggling. Assaulting a woman without touching her…
And you can’t prosecute for it or send him to prison for it. It’s f*cked up…he just might be the worst one yet.
Pamela Adlon should be added to the list of complicit garbage people. She’s a pig.
The Pamela Adlon connection is sad. Better Things is so good, and she plays such a strong female character, which I thought she also wrote. Impossible to believe she hadn’t heard of his reputation.
ITA. I could always take or leave Louis CK, but I like Pamela Adlon and Better Things is a great show. I don’t know how much Louis is involved in the day-to-day of the show, but it concerns me that there are three young girls (kindergarten through teenage) who play Pamela’s daughters. There haven’t been any reports of lewd behavior towards children, but he has shown he has extremely poor impulse control and judgment. But I feel Pamela had to have some knowledge of his behavior considering how long and close they have worked together.
If it didn’t happen to her or someone she knew, until the public accusations she would not have known it was anything but a dubious rumor. Especially if her interactions with him were good and respectful and showed no hint of it.
People have been clueless about abuse happening right in their own house because the abuser shuts the door and the abused keeps quiet about it. Really, it’s not hard to believe that both men and women didn’t realize what he was doing.
That attempted rape episode she wrote and acted in with him could form the basis of a dissertation on collusion with the patriarchy and the normalization of rape culture.
He used her as cover, as well, for what he did to younger women starting out in comedy. Tig Notaro spoke up about it. Adlon did not. Not sad this will be hitting her in her wallet, too.
His movie and TV career won’t survive, or whatever it is he is doing. He will do fine on the comedy circuit, though, which probably is his bread and butter anyway. I don’t know. I’ve never followed anything he does. I was never interested. My only memory of him is a couple of late-night interviews.
But I would imagine he makes a lot of money doing stand-up and will continue doing so once once he decides to go on tour after his stepping back. The only listening he will be doing isn’t to women, but to his accountants on how much he’s lost from canceled gigs and what how much he needs to make back.
The remorse is for the loss of the career. Otherwise he would have sought help long ago. That said, compulsions are some nasty mofos that can drive people into total weirdhood and self destruction. We live in a world of unrestrained compulsion. How to address it?
Wow! He has such admiration, if only in his own warped mind. Never have liked him, another creepy pervert w/ a massive ego.
Never liked him either, thought he was a creep.
I’m feeling very conflicted about this. I get that people think his apology is too little, too late and the damage is done. I also think he overused the word ‘admiration’ and he did deny the rumors not long ago. I get all this, but still I can’t see this one like the rest.
Shouldn’t there be any differentiation between people based on severity of their actions and how they handled it afterwards? The women’s accounts do make it seem like he was already remorseful before the rumors started swirling. I’m not saying that makes it OK, but it does give credence to his apology in terms of sincerity. Back in the summer when he denied the rumors, he didn’t call anyone a liar. He didn’t attack Tig in particular either. In fact, his denial was so weak and non-angry that it gave more credence to the “rumors”. I see this differently from others who repeatedly called the accusers liars. You could argue it was because Louis’s actions weren’t criminal. But the same could be said for Casey Affleck too, yet he continues to discredit the accusers, potentially damaging their careers even more.
I’m not saying LCK should continue his career as if nothing happened. I think the current response to his affiliations is fair. However, I think it’s also important to leave room for dialogue. Painting all the abusers with the same brush is not helpful because it creates an ‘us vs them’ mentality where people think they’re not abusers because they don’t see themselves as those “monsters”. I’m just thinking out loud here, but I think it’s possible to take a firm stance in general, but also differentiate people on a case by case basis.
” Back in the summer when he denied the rumors, he didn’t call anyone a liar. ”
I think denying is calling the accusers liars…every case is different, but it all comes down to fear and humiliation for the victim. How do the perpetrators make that right?
I feel the same way. All of the recently accused men are not on the same level. If there aren’t more accusations and more recent ones maybe he truly did realise what he was doing was not appropriate and stopped. Maybe not but I am not completely writing him off at this point. I hope that all of these people coming forward are creating a dialogue and will make work places safer for people. Hopefully there will be more guidelines for harrassment and assault that protects victims and doesn’t shame them.
@SAMANTHA
There was no apology, where in his statement dose he say he’s sorry for what he did.
He did call these women liars. This is what he said last month. This: “I don’t care about that. That’s nothing to me. That’s not real.”
What did you tell the NY Times only LAST MONTH? Here’s an excerpt:
“If you actually participate in a rumor, you make it bigger and you make it real.” So it’s not real? “No.” he responded. “They’re rumors, that’s all that is.”
Let me break it down for you another way. If you saw someone still candy and they said it wasn’t them. Then they are calling you a lier because they are saying you have a false statement.
I forgot to add that some women did say no and he did it any way.
Samantha and Chris
To note what Bridget said below Louis threatened to destroy the careers of women who spoke out, that why many of the women didn’t go on record for years. See Jezebel article.
These people can’t even apologize without self-aggrandizing.
1. Never says “I’m sorry”
2. Really focuses on how admired he was. Uses that word, like, 5 times.
This is all about him saving his ass.
F*ck off, Louis.
Remorseful does mean sorry. You’re blaming him for using a synonym. We have to get away from insisting on certain words without accepting other words that mean the same thing.
I think his word choice- even in using synonyms- means something. Saying I’m sorry or I apologize brings the fact that you’re wrong and being humble about it front and center. Saying that you’re remorseful, in my mind at least, puts a little more distance between you and the wrongdoing, and doesn’t necessarily bring you down a level. If that makes sense. Perhaps that’s just my own spin. Further, why would you use “dick” in a formal “heartfelt” apology, tho? It’s slang and the effect is to lessen the severity of what he’s doing. Yeah, dicks, man. It’s just what dudes do.
I, I, me, me, me, I, I, I. No real apology has so many references to oneself. Also – gag me with all the shut about how much the women and everyone admired and were in awe. Fuck. Right. Off. Bye Boo.
What about he years he spent trying to have the rumors silenced and the speakers stonewalled while continueing to act in the same abusive way? Yeah. No mention of that. Sad you got caught.
Nothing about how he threatened to destroy the careers of women who spoke out? Jezebel has a story about exactly WHY no one was willing to go on the record with this story.
Thank you Bridget for bring that up many people forget about that.
I never liked him or thought he was funny. His particular form of sexual abuse & misbehavior is less damaging than if he physically touched his victims. Robert Pattinson did this at least once on a movie set, with several people watching – just whipped it out & wanked.
I was appalled to hear that about Pattinson – puts him in these ranks, for sure – so I googled, and all I could find was his saying he almost gave up acting after being expected to wank for real on one of his first ever movies, when he was 20 or so and hadn’t made Twilight yet, and how humiliating it was.
I mean, maybe he’s backside-covering, but given the film was before he was famous, when he had no power whatsoever, and it was part of a script, I’m not sure he’s really the abuser in that scenario.
I dunno. I’ve got to the point now where it wouldn’t even amaze me if evil stories emerged about Tom Hanks and Keanu Reeves, so Pattinson isn’t impossible. But the comparison here doesn’t seem apposite (unless it’s another incident you refer to?). And it seems a bit unfair to shelve that incident alongside these.
Pattinson’s episode was during Bel Ami, I think? He prefaced the action with an off-hand remark about how he was supposed to be such a degenerate he might as well get in the mood. I don’t think there were women present, just guys in the crew.
There’s a Facebook meme that says: 2016 -the year your favourite celebrities were dead. 2017 – the year your favourite celebrities were dead to you.
I’m really gutted about John Stewart. He seemed one of the good guys. Yet he seemed to cover for this guy, too, in that interview. More reinforcement of the fact that public image, and actual person, are not especially connected.
And I note this apology carefully limits admissions to the women who spoke to the NYT. I mean, do we really believe he restricted his activities to them, and that they were all magically able to contact the journalist in question at a similar point in time? That he never tried this on with anyone else, ever? Please.
I think Stewart’s interview was a few years ago. He might actually have thought they were just rumors, and rumors can be baseless or highly exaggerated.
This is why it’s so important that women feel just as comfortable reporting things like this as they would reporting a robbery.
It will be more interesting hearing what he says now.
I also suspect he’s done it to many others, but we’ll have to see what happens. It sounds like a long-standing habit. Depends on his criteria for engaging in the weird behavior and how often he was alone with a woman who met those criteria.
He’s publicly denied these accusations as recently as last week, and participated for years in trying to silence these women personally and professionally, so he gets little praise from me for finally coming sort of clean in the wake of overwhelming evidence. It was literally, in every sense, the least he could do AND still managed to be legally butt-covering in his claims that he asked for permission, though he doesn’t relate if he actually received it.
If you haven’t read the Slate article about this “confession” yet, I highly recommend it. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/11/10/louis_c_k_s_masturbation_statement_unnervingly_misunderstands_the_concept.html
Thanks for that. I’d not read it.
He’s slime.
I think he believes this non-apology will satisfy his backers and fans enough to get that new movie of his released in 2018. He thinks he’s the next Great Genius Director/Actor, and that a “sex scandal” won’t have lasting impact. Just from watching that movie trailer, you can see he is trying to be the next Woody Allen–what a gross life goal. Thumbs down on this guy.
The Quartz reedited his statement. Starting with the actual words ‘I’m sorry’.
https://twitter.com/qz/status/929077501304954881
I call bs on this because he’s had PLENTY of opportunities to admit to it but he kept lying, brushing it off and, worse, calling these women liars!
I also wish there wouldn’t be a “hierarchy” to sexual assault/misconduct, the worst being rape, of course. ALL OF IT IS WRONG!! ALL OF IT IS TRAUMATIZING!! I still get chills when I remember a guy popping out of nowhere one night, as I was waiting for my dad to pick me up, and starting to masturbate. Honestly, I thought he was just “getting ready” to go further and I was in hysterics when my dad finally arrived. To this day I still wonder what would have happened if my dad hadn’t arrived. I cannot imagine all these women having to come back EVERY SINGLE DAY, because their livelihood are in the hands of the Weinsteins, Louis C.K.s, O’Reillys, Tobacks, Moores and others, of the world.
The same, of course, applies to all the men who were forced to stay in the vicinity of Kevin Spacey. Enough is enough!
Buy a freaking doll if you want a disposable object!!!
So sorry that happened to you. Thank goodness you survived.
You’re absolutely right: in the moment, no one knows how far it’s going to go. And the shock and fear burns the memory in your brain. It’s all awful.
Yes, exactly. Such bizarre behavior immediately raises other fears about how far he is going to go, now or later. For a colleague, there is Yet another level of problems, because the whole work dynamic changes in an instant.
I can’t imagine that too many guys won’t see his behavior as completely unacceptable. Most guys know that’s not the thing to do, ever. But they might not spontaneously realize how intimidating and traumatic it can be for the woman, unless we repeatedly explain that to them.
If you are the type of man who regularly and consistently engages in crude and purposeful sexual intimidation you cannot rehabilitate yourself with a ‘mea culpa I was a bad boy’ press release. You are a sick, toxic individual who requires a lifetime of psychiatric treatment to control the madness that controls you and causes you to demean women. So f*ck off, take your fake apologies away and donate some of your large fortune to a charitable organization that helps abused women.
Did anyone read Anthony Edwards mini essay? I thought it was really moving. He was molested by Gary Goddard (another Bryan Singer buddy) and his best friend was raped. Goddard has publicly denied it. Edwards is admired and well liked so I don’t think Goddard will be getting out of it this time. Others will probably come forward.
Are any of the disgraced celebs we’ve been hearing about likely to face jail time?
Weinstein, Spacey, Toback, and Ratner are currently under police investigation, I believe. I expect at least one of those guys to be charged. Not sure about jail time, depends what they get done for and how it plays out.
Weinstein raped women. If he doesn’t get jail time, it makes no sense whatsoever.
I hope his career is over.
Stop consuming his product and it will be.
SMDH…..this jerk’s ego is bigger than my dick, and I’m man enough not to take it out and prove it to you all…..unless of course you want me to.
Save it buddy.
I’d appreciate it if we could just cancel human beings for this year.
Trump and the North Korean bloke are working on it.
Here he tells A LOT about what´s inside his head… Minute 6:04 to on. Disgusting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSjat2copw