CBS Paid the Actress Eliza Dushku $9.5 Million to Settle Harassment Claims

The exchange left Ms. Dushku feeling “disgusting and violated,” according to the interview notes.

Mr. Weatherly said that when he mentioned a threesome, it was not to suggest Ms. Dushku take part in a threesome with him and another cast member. “While we’re shooting, in the context of the scene, she held up three fingers, suggesting something,” he said. “And I ad-libbed, ‘Threesome?’”

Then came the shooting of a scene involving a windowless van. With the cameras rolling, in front of the cast and crew, Mr. Weatherly said he would take Ms. Dushku to his “rape van,” which, he added, was filled with phallic objects and lubricant, according to the interview notes.

Mr. Weatherly said the “rape van” line was an attempted joke that misfired. “The scripted line in that scene was, ‘Hey, young lady, step into my windowless van,’” he said. “I didn’t particularly like that line, so I joked, in order to highlight how distasteful the emphasis of the line was, about an ‘r. van,’ a rape van. Which, in retrospect, was not a good idea.”

Ms. Dushku shared her concerns with Mr. Caron, who seemed receptive, according to the interview notes, and they agreed that she would approach Mr. Weatherly.

She began by telling Mr. Weatherly that “everyone loves” him on the set and followed his lead. She pointed out that after he made the threesome comment, a crew member said something similar to her, according to the interview notes. Mr. Weatherly asked Ms. Dushku who had made the remark and why she did not report it. As Ms. Dushku later told the lawyers, she did not have the sense that there was a “safe person you could go to” with that kind of complaint.

After the talk, Mr. Weatherly sent a text to David Stapf, the president of CBS Television Studios, saying that he wanted to talk about Ms. Dushku’s sense of humor. Mr. Stapf replied that Ms. Dushku made the show better, according to the interview notes.

Around the same time, Ms. Dushku expressed the worry to her representatives that Mr. Weatherly might go to CBS and get her fired.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/business/media/cbs-bull-weatherly-dushku-sexual-harrasment.html?partner=rss&emc=rss