Lythgoe is also co-creator and executive producer of the Fox dance competition series, whose 18th season is set to start in March.

“I have informed the producers of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ of my decision to step back from participating in this year’s series,” Lythgoe said in a statement. “I did so with a heavy heart but entirely voluntarily because this great program has always been about dance and dancers, and that’s where its focus needs to remain. In the meantime, I am dedicating myself to clearing my name and restoring my reputation.”

The 74-year-old English-born Lythgoe has been a prominent TV producer for decades in both the U.K. and the U.S., working on reality competition shows including “American Idol.”

The singer and dancer Abdul alleged in a lawsuit filed Dec. 30 that Lythgoe twice assaulted her — first in the early 2000s when she was an “American Idol” judge and again about a decade later when she was a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance,” which she left after two seasons.

Lythgoe called the allegations an “appalling smear” that he intends to fight.

The Associated Press does not generally identify people who say they are the victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Abdul has done.

The post Nigel Lythgoe Stepping Aside As ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Judge After Sexual Assault Allegations appeared first on TV News Check.

Patrick Poivre d’Arvor denies wrongdoing, and has sued 16 of his accusers. A revered personality who hosted France’s most popular news program for more than two decades, he insists that the sexual encounters were consensual.

The prosecutors’ office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said Wednesday that Poivre d’Arvor was given preliminary charges of rape by a person abusing his authority for alleged actions dating from 2009. He was also named as an “assisted witness” in another alleged rape from 2004.

Both incidents involved author Florence Porcel, who filed legal complaints in 2021. The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify those who say they have been victims of sexual wrongdoing, except when they publicly identify themselves.

Under French law, preliminary charges mean magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow time for further investigation before deciding whether to send a case to trial. The “assisted witness” status also allows time for further investigation that could lead to eventual charges or to a case being dropped.

The Nanterre prosecutors’ office said it that opened two preliminary investigations in 2021 into numerous accusations against Poivre d’Arvor, including Porcel’s. One investigation, involving complaints by about 20 women, was closed and the other is ongoing, prosecutors said in a statement to the AP.

Poivre d’Arvor’s lawyers said in a statement published online that he “firmly contests the facts alleged by Madame Porcel, as he has since the first day, and has provided numerous elements of material evidence.”

Lawyers Jacqueline Laffont and Julie Benedetti noted that prosecutors recommended dropping the case, but the investigating judges unusually filed the charge anyway.

Poivre d’Arvor was the star presenter of French television network TF1’s evening newscast between 1987 and 2008, making him one of the most famous people in France, where he is widely known as just “PPDA.” An author, he also used to anchor a prestigious TV literary program.

Soon after Porcel’s complaint, Poivre d’Arvor acknowledged in an interview with television channel TMC “small kisses in the neck, sometimes small compliments or sometimes some charm or seduction” — acts he said younger generations no longer accepted.

Dozens of women have spoken out in recent years to accuse Poivre d’Arvor of rape, sexual abuse or harassment from 1981 to 2018. Most accusations are now too old to prosecute.

Some of the women welcomed the announcement of the rape charge.

”Finally!” posted author Helene Devynck, who published a book last year titled “Impunity” that includes interviews with about 60 women who accused Poivre d’Arvor of sexual wrongdoing. Devynck’s book denounced France’s historically lax attitude toward sexual abuse allegations and the limited impact in France of the global #MeToo movement.

One of France’s biggest film stars, Gerard Depardieu, also is under renewed scrutiny for his behavior toward women after a recent documentary showed him repeatedly making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea.

Depardieu was handed preliminary charges of rape and sexual assault in 2020. The France-2 documentary says 16 women have accused him of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them. Depardieu denies wrongdoing.

The post Top French TV Personality Charged With Rape And Abusing Authority appeared first on TV News Check.

Batali pleaded not guilty to a charge of indecent assault and battery in 2019, stemming from accusations that he forcibly kissed and groped a woman after taking a selfie with her at a Boston restaurant in 2017. The woman says Batali noticed her photographing him and invited her to take one together, then touched and kissed her repeatedly without her consent.

If convicted, Batali could face up to 2 1/2 years in jail and be required to register as a sex offender. He’s expected to be in court throughout the proceedings, which should last about two days once jury selection is complete, said Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office.

Lawyers for Batali didn’t comment ahead of the start of jury selection Monday in Boston Municipal Court. The chef’s lawyers have previously said the charge is without merit.

His accuser has also filed a civil lawsuit against Batali seeking unspecified damages for “severe emotional distress” that’s still pending in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston. Her lawyer didn’t respond to emails Friday.

Batali is among a number of high-profile men who have faced a public reckoning during the #MeToo social movement against sexual abuse and harassment in recent years.

The 61-year-old was once a Food Network fixture on shows like “Molto Mario” and “Iron Chef America.” But the ponytail- and orange Croc-wearing personality’s high-flying career crumbled amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Four women accused him of inappropriate touching in 2017, after which he stepped down from day-to-day operations at his restaurant empire and left the since-discontinued ABC cooking show “The Chew.”

Batali has offered an apology, acknowledging the allegations “match up” with ways he has acted.

“I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team,” he said in an email newsletter at the time. “My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility.”

Last year, Batali, his business partner and their New York City restaurant company agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a four-year investigation by the New York attorney general’s office into allegations that Batali, restaurant managers and other workers sexually harassed employees.

In Boston, he opened a branch of the popular Italian food marketplace Eataly in the downtown Prudential Center in 2016 as well as a Babbo Pizzeria e Enoteca in the city’s Seaport District in 2015.

Batali has since been bought out of his stake in Eataly, which still has dozens of locations worldwide including in Boston, and the Babbo restaurant in the city has since closed.

The post Chef Mario Batali On Trial In Boston Sexual Misconduct Case appeared first on TV News Check.

Gooding also publicly apologized for the first time to two other women who accused him of similar behavior in separate encounters, calling himself a “celebrity figure” who meant no harm.

His admissions were part of a plea deal that came nearly three years after the Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star was arrested in the case that saw several delays as his lawyers sought to get charges reduced or dismissed.

“I apologize for making anybody ever feel inappropriately touched,” he said. “I am a celebrity figure. I come into contact with people. I never want them to feel slighted or uncomfortable in any way.”

Gooding, 54, accused of violating three different women at various Manhattan night spots in 2018 and 2019, pleaded guilty to just one of the allegations. He told the judge he “kissed the waitress on her lips” without consent at the LAVO New York club.

The deal lets Gooding avoid any possibility of jail time if he continues “alcohol and behavior modification” counseling for six months. After that, he can withdraw the misdemeanor plea and instead plead guilty to a lesser violation of harassment.

Gooding was arrested in June 2019 after a 29-year-old woman told police he fondled her without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square.

The accuser in that encounter, Kelsey Harbert, was allowed to speak in court on Wednesday, recounting how, out of nowhere, Gooding grabbed her breast “as if I was a piece of meat for dinner that night.”

Harbert, now 31, told the court she thought Gooding was getting off easy, while his accusers continue to suffer.

“I feel very sad and feel very lost for what I can do,” she said.

A few months after his arrest, Gooding was charged in two additional cases as more women came forward to accuse him of abuse. The new charges alleged he pinched a server’s buttocks after making a sexually suggestive remark to her at TAO Downtown and forcibly touched the woman at LAVO, both in 2018.

Gooding had previously pleaded not guilty to six misdemeanor counts and denied all allegations of wrongdoing. His lawyers have argued that overzealous prosecutors, caught up in the fervor of the #MeToo movement, are trying to turn “commonplace gestures” or misunderstandings into crimes.

Judge Curtis Farber earlier had ruled if the Gooding case went to trial, prosecutors could have called two additional women to testify about their allegations that Gooding also violated them. Prosecutors say the judge had since reversed that decision — a ruling that factored into their decision to not go to trial.

“We credit and believe all the survivors in this case,” said prosecutor Coleen Balbert. But under the circumstances, Wednesday’s outcome “is a fair and equitable disposition,” she added.

Along with the criminal case, Gooding is accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman in New York City in 2013. After a judge issued a default judgment in July because Gooding hadn’t responded to the lawsuit, the actor retained a lawyer and is fighting the allegations.

Gloria Allred, an attorney representing three of Gooding’s accusers, said in a statement that they would press ahead with civil litigation to hold him accountable.

“Justice was significantly delayed in this case for many reasons, and I do not feel that justice was achieved today with the entry of this plea, although I do understand why under the circumstances that the prosecution offered a plea,” she said.

The post Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. Pleads Guilty To Forcible Touching appeared first on TV News Check.

The post Golden Globes Group Investigating Member Over Sexual Misconduct Claims appeared first on TV News Check.

Vice reported earlier Monday that Toobin had exposed himself during a Zoom meeting with staffers of the New Yorker and WNYC radio. In a statement Monday afternoon, the New Yorker said Toobin had been “suspended while we investigate the matter.” It declined further comment. A CNN spokesperson said in a statement that “Jeff Toobin has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted.”

The 60-year-old Toobin has been a New Yorker writer for more than 20 years and joined CNN in 2002. He is the author of several books, most recently “True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump,” published in August. His other works include “The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson” and “The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court.”

AP Media Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

The post Toobin Suspended By The New Yorker, Steps Away From CNN appeared first on TV News Check.

Weinstein, who has been accused of violating scores of women, was convicted last month of raping a woman in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman at his apartment in 2006. He faced a maximum of 29 years in prison.

Both women that Weinstein was convicted of assaulting — a once-aspiring actress and a former TV and film production assistant — spoke in court Wednesday before Judge James Burke announced the sentence, confronting Weinstein again after their testimony helped seal his conviction at the landmark #MeToo trial.

The once-aspiring actress that Weinstein was convicted of raping in 2013 recalled the moment during the trial when she left the witness stand in tears and then could be heard screaming from an adjacent room.

“The day my screams were heard from the witness room was the day my voice came back to its full power,” she said.

“Rape is not just one moment of penetration. It is forever.”

The Associated Press has a policy of not naming people who have been sexually assaulted without their consent. It is withholding the rape accuser’s name because it is not clear whether she wishes to be identified.

Weinstein, who has maintained that any sexual any sexual activity was consensual, also spoke in court, saying he had fond memories of his accusers.

Looking back during the trial at emails they exchanged, he said, he thought they had a good friendship: “I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue.”

Burke also heard from Weinstein’s lawyers, who pleaded for leniency because of his age and frail health, and prosecutors, who said the man once celebrated as a titan of Hollywood deserved a harsh sentence that would account for allegations of wrongdoing dating to the 1970s.

Under state law, Burke was able to consider evidence outside the scope of the trial in forming his sentence.

In their sentencing letter, prosecutors outlined 16 examples they said showed Weinstein “trapped women into his exclusive control” so he could sexually assault them, starting when he was working as a music producer in Buffalo in 1978.

Weinstein was sentenced a week shy of his 68th birthday, and his lawyers argued that a lengthy prison term would, in effect, be a life sentence. They sought a five-year sentence, the mandatory minimum on the more serious of the two charges that jurors found him guilty of.

Weinstein used a walker throughout the trial and arrived at the courthouse Wednesday in wheelchair because of back problems from a car crash last summer, has a condition that requires shots in his eyes and last week had a stent placed to unblock an artery.

The agency that runs New York’s state prisons said every inmate is evaluated to determine which facility meets his or her security, medical, mental health and other needs.

The New York case was the first criminal matter to arise from accusations of more than 90 women, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman.

Weinstein was convicted on two counts: criminal sex act for the 2006 assault on the production assistant and rape in the third degree for a 2013 attack on another woman.

On the criminal sex act count, he faced a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years in prison, while the third-degree rape count carried a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

He was acquitted of the more serious charges against him of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault.

Weinstein contends that any sexual activity was consensual. After he was convicted he proclaimed, “I’m innocent. I’m innocent. I’m innocent. How could this happen in America?” according to his lawyer, Arthur Aidala.

Now that Weinstein has been sentenced, his lawyers can move forward with a promised appeal.

His legal team was upset with Burke’s handling of the case, from his inclusion of a juror who’d written a novel involving predatory older men to his rulings on evidence, witnesses and objections.

Just as jury selection was about to get under way in January, authorities in Los Angeles announced new, similar charges stemming from allegations against Weinstein there.

His lawyers questioned the timing, suggesting it was meant to influence the New York jury pool, and asked Burke to delay the start of jury selection for a “cooling off” period, which he denied.

Weinstein was charged in California with raping a woman at a Los Angeles hotel on Feb. 18, 2013, after pushing his way inside her room, and sexually assaulting a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel suite the next night.

Weinstein could get up to 28 years in prison on charges of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery in the California case. Authorities have not said when he would go there to face those charges.

Three more sexual assault cases under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and Beverly Hills’ police could mean that he’ll face additional charges. No details have been provided on these cases.

The post Harvey Weinstein Sentenced To 23 Years appeared first on TV News Check.

His exit came after a weekend of discussions with his bosses, three days after GQ ran a column by a freelance journalist about her “own sexist run-in” with Matthews in the makeup room before appearing on his show.

Matthews opened his program Monday with the announcement, talking in his familiar staccato style, that he was ending his run on the political talk show he started in 1997. After a commercial break, he was replaced in the anchor chair by a shaken Steve Kornacki.

“This is the last ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC, and obviously this isn’t for lack of interest in politics,” Matthews said.

He said that “compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have incorrectly thought were OK were never OK. Not then, and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

The 74-year-old Matthews, who underwent prostate surgery last year, worked as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and was top aide to House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill before turning to journalism as Washington bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner. He had been talking to MSNBC management about retiring after the election, but he didn’t survive until Super Tuesday.

He apologized last Monday for likening Sanders’ win in the Nevada caucus two nights earlier to the Nazi takeover of France. On Friday’s show, he confused the identities of South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison and Sen. Tim Scott, both black men.

And he was criticized for an uncomfortable interview with Warren following the presidential debate, asking if she believed Mike Bloomberg was lying when he denied telling a pregnant female employee of his news company to terminate the pregnancy.

“Why would she lie?” Warren said.

In her first-person story GQ story released Friday, journalist Laura Bassett said Matthews behaved inappropriately toward her when she was a guest on his show in 2016.

In the makeup room prior to the show, Matthews looked at her and said “why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?” she wrote.

“When I laughed nervously and said nothing, he followed up to the makeup artist. ‘Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her,’” Bassett wrote. “Another time, he stood between me and the mirror and complimented the red dress I was wearing for the segment. ‘You going out tonight?’ he asked.”

Bassett said she wrote about the encounter in a 2017 essay but didn’t name Matthews because she was afraid of network retaliation, adding, “I’m not anymore.”

It was noticed by outsiders when Matthews didn’t appear on MSNBC’s coverage of the South Carolina primary on Saturday night.

Crew members backstage at “Hardball” on Monday learned of their boss’ exit about an hour and a half before Matthews’ statement. There were audible gasps in the green room from guests waiting to go on for the first segment when they listened to the announcement the same time as viewers. Shortly after he made his statement, Matthews left the studio with his wife and family.

MSNBC said there will be rotating subs in the time slot before a permanent replacement is named for the host who has been a mainstay of the network’s lineup since two years after MSNBC launched.

Even before his last week, there was some discontent among Sanders supporters about Matthews’ lack of enthusiasm for their candidate, putting the news network that appeals to a liberal audience at odds with a potential liberal presidential nominee.

Kornacki, at the end of Monday’s show, said he watched the show as a teenager.

“Chris has plenty of intellect but he also was willing to wear his heart on his sleeve,” he said. “That’s what made him compelling viewing.”

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker tweeted that she’s writing an angry column about his exit.

“Chris Matthews is a friend of mine,” she wrote. “He and I have flirted unabashedly for 20 years. This is an atrocious end to a noble, happy-warrior career. I will continue to be his friend.”

Associated Press writers Lynn Elber in Los Angeles and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this story.

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