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Well now, I feel validated for not being a fan of Michael Weatherly ("Bull" and "NCIS") -- CBS Paid Eliza Dushku 9.5 million after alleged sexual harassment termination.

And here's the link to the Times article referenced by NPR - Weatherly and Dushku Sexual Harassment

How much you want to bet that Bull gets cancelled at the end of this year? And NCIS may well be on its last legs?

Details of Ms. Dushku’s experiences on “Bull” and the confidential settlement she reached with the company emerged during the course of an investigation that began in August, when the CBS Corporation board hired the law firms Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton to examine accusations of sexual misconduct made by multiple women against Leslie Moonves, the company’s former chief executive. The board also instructed the outside lawyers to investigate “cultural issues at all levels of CBS.”

In a draft of the investigation report, which was reviewed by The New York Times, the lawyers said the company’s handling of Ms. Dushku’s complaints was not only misguided, but emblematic of larger problems at CBS. When faced with instances of wrongdoing, the company had a tendency to protect itself, at the expense of victims, the investigators wrote.

(..........)

The investigation’s findings show how Ms. Dushku sought to address conduct she found demeaning, why she believed she faced retaliation and how a top CBS lawyer tried to undermine her claims with what investigators described as an “antiquated” view of how a woman should comport herself in the workplace.

On “Bull,” Ms. Dushku played J.P. Nunnelly, a criminal defense lawyer. Although she would have a running flirtation with Mr. Weatherly’s character, Mr. Caron, the producer, said that he “wouldn’t want intimacy” until the show’s fifth season, according to notes taken by a participant in an interview Ms. Dushku gave investigators in September.

But it wasn’t long before Mr. Weatherly started making comments that left her feeling uncomfortable. “Here comes legs,” he said on a day when Ms. Dushku was wearing a suit, according to the interview notes. On another occasion, Ms. Dushku told investigators, he said in front of the cast and crew that he would bend her over his leg and spank her.

In an interview, Mr. Weatherly said the remark about spanking was meant as a joke. “I ad-libbed a joke, a classic Cary Grant line from ‘Charade’ or ‘Philadelphia Story,’ and that meant not at all that that was an action I wanted to take,” he said.

Ms. Dushku also described to investigators a time on the set when, in character, she made a gesture with three fingers. In response, she said, Mr. Weatherly suggested — to laughs from the crew — that she wanted to have a threesome with him and another male cast member.

I have to say I've seen this behavior throughout my working life. And it runs a lot deeper than CBS. This is the toxic male culture that we currently live in. Every television show, every business, every workplace, every school...most likely has seen similar behavior or instances of it. We turn a blind eye...and say, well it's a harmless joke or boys will be boys, or he's just flirting, it's nothing -- toughen up.

But it isn't nothing. And no one should be made to feel unsafe in their work environment. Also crass jokes are best left at home.