(NOTE CONTENT) Actress Eliza Dushku appeared via video before a House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to detail the “near-constant” sexual harassment she claims she suffered on the set of the CBS legal drama Bull.
According to a video of her testimony posted by Page Six, Dushku participated in a virtual hearing titled “Silenced: How Forced Arbitration Keeps Victims of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment in the Shadow.”
Dushku claimed that she was subjected to “relentless…crude” comments, from her co-star, whom she didn’t identify by name as Michael Weatherly — whom she’d formerly and formally accused, eventually winning a multimillion dollar settlement from the network.
“[I]n my first week on my new job I found myself the brunt of crude, sexualized and lewd verbal assaults,” and “near-constant sexual harassment from my co-star,” she said.
The actress called the treatment “beyond anything I had experienced in my 30-year career.”
What’s more, the 40-year-old actress claimed that she was “fired and silenced when I attempted to address it.”
Many of the comments she claimed were directed at her were unprintably “crude.”
Dushku alleged that the co-star in question said he wanted to take her “to his rape van,” and that he’d “smell me and leeringly look me up and down.”
She added that the harassing comments “were incessant and demeaning and directed at me in the middle of what was supposed to be a professional workplace.”
CBS has not responded to Dushku’s new comments.
However, the network acknowledged in 2019 that Weatherly and executive producer Glenn Gordon Caron were receiving “leadership coaching.”
CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl said then, “[A]s the head of a show, [they want] to make the set a positive place to work.”
The network also noted at the time, “The allegations in Ms. Dushku’s claims are an example that, while we remain committed to a culture defined by a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace, our work is far from done.”
(Video contains sensitive language)
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