As one of the O.G. members of the outed-by-#MeToo crew, Charlie Rose has fallen a considerable distance over the last two years. Faced with accusations from more than two dozen women of persistent patterns of sexual harassment stretching across decades of work, Rose has since lost all of his TV gigs, had major awards rescinded, and faced a lawsuit from a trio of his accusers. Now he’s being pulled back into court again, with Variety reporting that his former makeup artist is suing him on a set of similar charges.
Specifically, Gina Riggi, who worked with Rose for 22 years, is suing him on the grounds of unlawful behavior against female employees. In personal terms, Riggi alleges that Rose was frequently verbally abusive to her, making derogatory comments about her appearance and weight, and once “twisted her arm” while she was attempting to apply makeup to him. She also alleges that she observed years of his harassment of other women around her, and that said women often used her makeup room or the green room of Rose’s PBS show in order to hide from his advances.
Rose’s lawyers have issued a statement denying Riggi’s claims, along with lines from emails in which Riggi expressed her satisfaction at working for the TV host—as though “wanting to keep her job by mollifying an allegedly temperamental abuser” and “being disgusted and outraged by Rose’s behavior” are somehow mutually exclusive actions.