CBS Leader Les Moonves accused of Misconduct

FreddyE1977 said:

Do not be stunned if he eventually ends up getting most or all of it.

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FreddyE1977 said:

CBS has staked out their case to not pay Moonves his severance.
He will surely sue. This will get decided in the courts.

Do not be stunned if he eventually ends up getting most or all of it.

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Just months after being fired by CBS, Leslie Moonves is running a new company.

And though Mr. Moonves and his former employer are locked in a dispute over $120 million in severance, CBS is paying for the office space that Mr. Moonves now occupies.

The company, Moon Rise Unlimited, operates out of a 10th-floor suite at 9000 Sunset Boulevard, among the tallest buildings in West Hollywood. A glass-sheathed office tower with expansive views of Los Angeles, it can be seen from miles away and is near entertainment industry beehives like Soho House and Chateau Marmont.

Mr. Moonves was forced out of CBS in September after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. In December, the company officially said he was fired, citing “willful and material misfeasance, violation of company policies and breach of his employment contract.”

His exit agreement, however, states that CBS must pay for Mr. Moonves’s “office services” for no less than a year, even if the company fired him for cause. CBS declined to comment.

On Oct. 30, according to a filing with the California secretary of state, Mr. Moonves registered Moon Rise Unlimited, a limited liability company that will focus on “entertainment services.” He is listed as the company’s manager in a separate filing.

Mr. Moonves also appears to have formed two related companies around the same time: Moon Rise Technologies, which it said in a filing planned to provide “streaming services and distribution,” and Moon Rise Productions, which it said planned to provide “film and television production” services.

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UPDATE, with CBS News response Former CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley said today on CNN’s Reliable Sources news magazine that he was fired from his job because he “wouldn’t stop complaining to management” about a “hostile work environment” in the news division.

The remarks came after Pelley was asked about the CBS situation, where a number of top executives, including chairman/CEO Leslie Moonves, have exited for various harassment complaints.

“I lost my job at the Evening News because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment,” Pelley said. He claimed he went to the president of the news division, David Rhodes, and told him, “that this hostile work environment couldn’t go on, for women and men. And he told me if I kept agitating about that internally then I’d lose my job”

Pelley claimed he then went over Rhodes’s head to former CBS head Moonves.

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TheBigA said:

It didn't help that his ratings weren't too strong. Technically he didn't get fired, because his contract was up, and he still works for CBS News.

He also went on to say that things are much better now.

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Just over a year after first cryptically alluding to “multiple physical assaults” on the NCIS set, Pauley Perrette has shed more light on her claims — and in doing do put series lead Mark Harmon in the crosshairs.

In a Friday tweet that didn’t appear to be in response to anything in particular, the NCIS alum said, “NO I AM NOT COMING BACK! EVER! (Please stop asking?) I am terrified of Harmon and him attacking me. I have nightmares about it.”

Two hours later, she followed that up with close-up photos of a crew member who, lore has it, was bitten by Harmon’s dog on-set in October 2016. (TMZ reported at the time that the crew member had been “roughhousing” with the then three-year-old pit bull mix, and required 16 stitches for his injury.)

“You think I didn’t expect blow back? You got me wrong,” Perrette’s second Friday tweet read. “THIS happened To my crew member and I fought like hell to keep it from happening again! To protect my crew! And then I was physically assaulted for saying NO!? and I lost my job.”

CBS did not immediately respond to TVLine’s request for comment on Perrette’s June 7 tweets.

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Set to square off against an Emmy-winning investigative reporter, CBS demands no discussion of Leslie Moonves nor any "me too" evidence.
Will CBS CEO Joseph Ianniello have to take the witness stand at a trial next month and talk about Leslie Moonves and the company's problems on the #MeToo front? On Monday, CBS took steps to avoid that possibility.

On Dec. 9, CBS is set to square off in Florida federal court against Michele Gillen, an Emmy-winning investigative reporter who alleges being fired on the basis of sex and age. She filed her suit more than a year ago in the midst of the Moonves scandal. "The culture of toxic misogyny exposed of late in Hollywood and national media outlets is and has been thriving at CBS," began her complaint.

Gillen alleges being subject to a bullying and hostile work environment. She says that CBS executives and her WFOR-TV superiors "hatched a scheme for her firing" that included giving her a story reporting quota without the resources to succeed.

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Cassandra Vinograd, a London-based associate producer for 60 Minutes, has sued CBS for "unlawful discriminatory conduct" and "unlawful retaliatory conduct" after she attempted to report her boss for misconduct.

In September 2019, Vinograd "emailed senior executives and the general counsel, to describe her serious concerns regarding 'highly inappropriate, unprofessional and upsetting events'" involving her boss, longtime CBS News producer Michael Gavshon, whom she claims sent her an inappropriate photograph. She asked for an investigation and to be protected from "retaliation."

"In the ensuing days, through a series of swift moving events, Cassie was ostracized, isolated and penalized for calling out what she perceived as inappropriate conduct by Gavshon," the suit claims. "Gavshon quickly removed her from all stories in production, including a segment she had pitched and performed the majority of the work on. In deference to Gavshon, CBS executives did nothing to stop his blatant retaliation. Worse, senior executives ratified his personal vendetta by willingly sending temporary associate producers to replace Cassie and work with Gavshon."

In addition to her concerns about his "excessive drinking," Gavshon sent her "an old photo of Gavshon and some friends urinating on what appeared to be smoldering coal." (Gavshon claimed to her that he meant to send the photo to his sister.)

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