Cases Closed and Careers Restored: What Is Happening Now With Celebrities Accused of Harassment

Far from everyone has been punished.

The day before, it became known that scandalous producer Harvey Weinstein had reached a global settlement with the women who suffered harassment at his hands. He will pay about three dozen actresses and his former employees. We explain how the main 2010s harassment case is ending and what is happening now with other famous people previously accused of harassment.

Harvey Weinstein

The former producer agreed to pay his victims. The total amount of his payments will be $25 million. All victims of Weinstein's harassment and rape will receive it.

In total, about three dozen actresses and former subordinates of the ex-producer will receive compensation. A court hearing is due to begin in January, but it may end only with a fine, if lawmakers are satisfied with it.

Notably, the entire amount of the payments will be taken from the insurance funds of The Weinstein Company.

Kevin Spacey

The legendary actor was accused of groping the genitals of 18-year-old Anthony Rapp in one of the restaurants on Nantucket Island in 2016. Spacey did not admit guilt. In total, more than thirty men accused the actor of harassment and assault, but only one case went to court.

This summer, Massachusetts prosecutors dropped the sexual harassment charges against Kevin Spacey. The prosecution said the decision was made due to “the unavailability of the witness who filed the complaint.”

Still, this did destroy Spacey's career. The last season of “House of Cards” was filmed without him, the actor was also cut from the film “All the Money in the World” and stripped of his Emmy award. There was no talk of new roles.

Louis C.K.

November 2017 also had a strong impact on the career of popular comedian Louis C.K. He was accused of masturbating in front of women who did not want to watch. The comedian immediately confirmed his guilt, canceled all his upcoming performances and closed his social media accounts. HBO and Netflix refused to work with him, although his show and film had been expected to premiere on their platforms.

As a result, Louis C.K. disappeared for a year and a half. In August 2018, he unexpectedly performed at the Comedy Cellar club in New York. The performance was not recorded, so the details are known from comments by audience members who were in the club at the time.

According to them, the comedian tried not to raise the topic of harassment, but it was clear he regretted what had happened. The only thing he said was that during this time he “went down to hell and back,” as he had lived through a rather difficult year. He also noted that he had lost $35 million in just one hour.

Louis C.K. is currently on his first tour since the harassment accusations. It consists of 18 dates in four countries: the United States, Israel, Slovakia and Italy. “I am going on tour and will professionally pursue stand-up comedy. It will consist of jokes, stories, observations, lies and not-lies, and in general of silly behavior for the sake of an audience that laughs,” the comedian wrote when announcing the tour, which runs from November 2019 to January 2020.

Roy Price

The head of Amazon Studios stepped down after producer Isa Hackett publicly accused him of sexual harassment. It also became known that Price did nothing when one of the actresses working with Amazon Studios told him about harassment by producer Harvey Weinstein. Because of the accusations, his fiancée left him a few weeks before the wedding.

Price now has a completely different career and life: he sells works of art in Hong Kong.

James Toback

Director James Toback, an Oscar nominee, was accused of offering women on the streets of New York to make them movie stars, but the subsequent interviews ended in sexual harassment. As many as 38 women made this claim. Toback himself says he has never seen any of them in his life. Later, 200 more women joined them.

His agent immediately ended his collaboration with the director. Fellow filmmaker James Gunn said he had repeatedly warned Toback about his inappropriate behavior.

Several months after the accusations, the Los Angeles prosecutor said the director would not be charged with sexual assault due to the statute of limitations. Toback, who in total was accused of sexual misconduct by 395 women, “potentially” broke the law, but cannot be charged because of the statute of limitations.

Asia Argento

The Italian actress and director was one of the women who accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment. However, only a few months after her statement, Argento herself was accused of harassment.

The accusation came from actor Jimmy Bennett. According to him, she seduced him when he was not yet 18. At first Argento denied all the accusations, but after some time she said that they had had a sexual relationship. However, she said she did not know Bennett was a minor, and that he himself allegedly insisted on the sex.

Later, Asia disappeared from public view and only occasionally appeared at public events. In September of this year she returned to Instagram, posting a photo in a swimsuit and writing: “I am back stronger than ever!”.

Bryan Singer

Four men at once accused director Bryan Singer of harassment. According to them, it happened in the 1990s, when all of them were still minors. The director himself denies all the accusations, and his representative said he had never engaged in sexual relations with minors.

20th Century Fox fired Singer, who was originally the director of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and replaced him with Dexter Fletcher. The official reason for the dismissal was Singer's absences from work, not the harassment accusations. Singer's name still remains in the list of directors of the biographical film about Freddie Mercury, and he recently also got a job directing a remake of the film Red Sonja.

Chris Brown

In early 2019, American singer Chris Brown was arrested in Paris.  A 24-year-old woman accused him of raping her in his hotel room on January 15. According to her, they met at a nightclub and then went to his hotel. The singer was later released. The investigation into this case is still ongoing.

Previously, Brown received a five-year suspended sentence and was sentenced to community service for attacking his former girlfriend, singer Rihanna, in 2009.

Morgan Freeman

In 2018, eight women said that the famous actor had committed indecent acts against them and harassed them.

In particular, one of the administrators of the film crew said that Freeman often allowed himself sexual gestures and comments during the filming of the comedy “Going in Style” in 2015.

For example, she says, the actor tried to get under her skirt and asked whether she was wearing underwear. According to other women, he also often made inappropriate remarks about their figures.

Although Freeman denied what happened, Visa, in whose commercials the actor appeared, stopped airing these videos and ended its collaboration with him. The actors' union SAG-AFTRA said it is reviewing the Freeman Lifetime Achievement award, calling the harassment reports “compelling and devastating.”

James Franco

After the actor received a Golden Globe in early 2018, several women, including actress Ellie Shidi, said Franco had attempted to harass them. Later, five more women described his inappropriate and sexually exploitative behavior.

Franco himself said these claims are not entirely accurate, but he fully supports women who have suffered sexual violence.

The actor continues to work in film and television. As a consequence of the scandal, it is worth noting that the school he attended removed a mural depicting him, saying this was done in the interests of the students.

Terry Richardson

The publishing house Condé Nast, which includes Vogue and GQ, cut ties with popular photographer Terry Richardson, who over his career has shot hundreds of celebrities, from Barack Obama to Miley Cyrus. He became known for the frankness and provocativeness of his photographs. Models repeatedly accused him of harassment, but Richardson denied everything. After the Weinstein scandal, the old accusations surfaced again.

The publisher cut ties with the photographer and canceled all planned shoots with him, after an article in The Sunday Times asked why fashion publications still work with a man referred to as the Harvey Weinstein of the fashion world.

Police are now investigating the harassment accusations against the photographer.

Alexei Simonchuk