THR reports that Andy Signore, creator of the popular, Emmy-nominated web series Honest Trailers, has been suspended from his position with the show’s parent company, after two women came forward today accusing him of sexual harassment and assault.
One of the women, Emma Bowers, went on social media today to detail an incident in which Signore invited her, an unpaid intern, to come over to his place so that he could masturbate in front of her. According to Bowers, Signore had recently found pin-up pictures she’d previously done, and “tried to play it off as silly.” “You need to understand,” she writes, “This guy was my boss. He was in a position of power, and I was a very under-skilled young lady, working with him for free…So I said, ‘I’m flattered, but no thank you.’” Bowers said she was inspired to come forward by the accusations recently levied against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in a recent New York Times piece.
The other woman, April Dawn—who’s appeared on content on the Screen Junkies YouTube channel, which hosts Honest Trailers, and whose boyfriend is an engineer for the channel—accused Signore of attempting to sexually assault her on multiple occasions. She also said that Screen Junkies’ HR organization ignored her complaints, instead choosing to protect Signore and threaten her boyfriend with the possible loss of his job if she pressed her case. She’s also been collecting Twitter DMS and emails from other women demonstrating an apparent pattern of incidents in which Signore appears to have repeatedly crossed boundaries while talking with employees and female fans.
In response to the accusations, Screen Junkies’ parent company, Defy Media, issued a statement today:
We at Defy Media have no tolerance for harassment or retaliation of any kind. We have been conducting a thorough investigation into allegations made against Andy Signore and are preparing to respond to those allegations and take appropriate action. Given the additional statements that were made today, we feel it is necessary to suspend Andy’s employment while we continue our investigation. We will take all necessary action once the investigation is fully complete.
Dawn responded to the company’s statement on Twitter: