CBS was forced to pay actress Bobbie Phillips millions of dollars in a legal solution after the sexual harassment claims she made against the ashamed former executive Les Moonves were transmitted to the New York Times, a report shows .
The deal came after CBS hired two law firms – Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling – to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct by several women in the network against Moonves, Vanity Fair reported.
A draft investigation report and a number of other details about the internal investigation – including Phillips’ accusation that Moonves forced her to have oral sex at a 1995 meeting – were then aired in the Times in 2018.
As a result, CBS and Covington were forced to pay Phillips millions of dollars because they violated the privacy agreement, leaving the information leaked in the newspaper, according to Vanity Fair.
“Debevoise is not a party to any agreement with any party regarding its work for CBS,” said a Debevoise & Plimpton spokesman.
The agreement was “rumored to be in the tens of millions” and was signed in the fall of 2019, the report says.
Moonves, the former CEO of the broadcast giant, was forced to resign in 2018 after New York reporter Ronan Farrow published an explosive article detailing the sexual harassment allegations against him.
In a meeting with Phillips in 1995, Moonves allegedly threw his pants in front of her and said, “Look how hard you’re making me,” according to the 2018 Times report.
“Be my girlfriend and I’ll put you on any show,” he added to the actress, who has appeared on shows such as “Boy Meets World,” “The X-Files” and “Baywatch.”
Moonves then grabbed her by the neck and forced her to have oral sex with him, according to the report.
She managed to break free by grabbing a baseball bat after it was interrupted by a phone call, which she said was with an “ER” casting director.
Moonves later told Phillips Hollywood agent Marv Dauer, “if Bobbie talks, we’re done,” the Times reported.
Dauer told Vanity Fair that he was aware that he had reached a solution to the leak, because “he felt that its confidentiality had been violated as a result of the leak.”