4 September 2021: Hollywood Celebrities Ousted from Leadership of Time's Up for Cuomo Support

Shonda Rhimes, Eva Longoria, Jurnee Smollett Among Time’s Up Board Exits Amid Leadership Reorganization

The Time's Up advocacy group reeled as three prominent Hollywood celebrities and several others were ousted from the group's leadership in the aftermath of revelations the organization's leadership chose to remain silent regarding sexual harassment complaints levied against New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who recently resigned in disgrace because of the charges.

Shonda Rhimes, Eva Longoria, Jurnee Smollett, Katie McGrath, Christy Haubegger, Hilary Rosen, Michelle Kydd, and Time’s Up’s interim board chair Nina Shaw are among the members stepping down from their positions with the gender equity group based on a statement posted Saturday to the organization’s website. Colleen DeCourcy, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, Ashley Judd and Gabrielle Sulzberger are to remain on the board during this period “to help ensure a smooth transition,” according to the statement.

The announced resignations came after the group came under heavy criticism by leading anti-sexual harassment advocates, who noted the group placed political support for Andrew M. Cuomo ahead of those of the alleged victims of his sexual harassment, violating the group's mission.

Those who have been agitating for change at the organization are watching with caution. “These resignations are a step in the right direction, however, survivors are waiting to hear their concrete plans and how the organization plans to repair harm,” said activist and sexual assault survivor Alison Turkos, who organized the survivors’ letter calling for an investigation into Time’s Up on Aug. 9, which called for a a return of donations by individuals or companies facing sexual assault or harassment allegations. “It feels like Time’s Up leadership is ignoring the eight asks clearly laid out in our letter.”...

The board exits follow the aforementioned open letter, organized by Turkos, to the gender rights organization from a group of sexual assault survivors and victims, current and former Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund clients and former Time’s Up staffers that accused the board of prioritizing “proximity to power over mission” following the Aug. 3 revelation in a New York Attorney General’s report that Cuomo’s office sought advice from Tchen and Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund co-founder Roberta Kaplan on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations.

We consider this story to be evidence of the continuing collapse of what we've described as the Cuomo influence network. Whereever it was established, often by former Cuomo administration staffers who successfully embedded themselves in prominent or leadership positions at various media and advocacy organizations, the network worked to advance the political interests of Andrew M. Cuomo over the interests and missions of their new organization.

In Time's Up case, the former Cuomo staffer was loyalist Roberta Kaplan, who succeeded in compromising the advocacy group into complicit silence regarding the sexual harassment charges of Lindsey Boylan, who was retaliated against by senior Cuomo administration officials according to the New York attorney general's 3 August 2021 report.

The ouster of so many of its board members now, under the cover of a long holiday weekend similar to a Friday night news-dump by scandal-plagued politicians, indicates the extent to which Time's Up's leadership was complicit in servicing the interests of Andrew M. Cuomo.