Jeremy Piven groping allegations: CBS, HBO, Piven respond
This story began on Monday when reality star Ariane Bellamar accused Piven of groping her back on the set of Entourage many years ago (You can take a look at all of the tweets over at the link here). She has since elaborated even more on the incident, and with the story spreading both HBO (the network behind Entourage) and also CBS, home of his new series Wisdom of the Crowd, are speaking out.
For HBO, they are saying that this is the first time that they have heard about such allegations against Piven during his time on the show:
“Today, via the press reports, is the first we are hearing about Ariane Bellamar’s allegations concerning Jeremy Piven. Everyone at HBO and our productions is aware that zero tolerance for sexual harassment is our policy. Anyone experiencing an unsafe working environment has several avenues for making complaints that we take very seriously.”
Meanwhile, CBS per Variety confirmed that they are looking into the allegations. The impact of them could be widespread given that Wisdom of the Crowd is a first-year show, and also one that is meant to have an aspirational tone to it. The nature of this accusation is such that it may make some people out there uncomfortable with the idea of watching the show — CBS also has a decision to make in regards to what they want to do in light of some of the news breaking.
For the record, Piven has released a statement denying the accusations made by Bellamar:
“I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me. It did not happen. It takes a great deal of courage for victims to come forward with their histories, and my hope is that the allegations about me that didn’t happen, do not detract from stories that should be heard.”
No matter what happens with this story moving forward it may be fair to say that this isn’t the last we are going to hear about it. Many of the accusations coming out today, whether they be via the #MeToo movement or something else, stem from the horrific Harvey Weinstein reports that surfaced weeks ago.
If you missed it earlier…
Netflix has temporarily suspended House of Cards production in the wake of Anthony Rapp’s comments in regards to Kevin Spacey; meanwhile, NBC opted to edit out a line featuring Spacey from Tuesday night’s This Is Us episode. (Photo: CBS.)