Actress alleges Les Moonves sexually assaulted her and offered her a $1,500 acting gig to keep quiet

The New York Times

Bolstered by hundreds of text messages, The New York Times reports on a new allegation that could sink Moonves' $120 million CBS exit package. Actress Bobbie Phillips alleges that in 1995, when Moonves was president of Warner Bros. Television, he sexually assaulted her. According to The Times, Moonves "allegedly grabbed her by the neck, pushed her to her knees and forced his penis into her mouth" during a meeting in his office. Phillips told her agent, Marv Dauer, about the incident soon afterwards. In November 2017, amid the #MeToo movement, Dauer received a call from a Times reporter asking about Moonves and sexual misconduct. "He immediately thought of Bobbie Phillips," The Times reports. That led to Dauer connecting with Moonves. "Mr. Dauer and Mr. Moonves have given different accounts of the conversation, but they agree on one crucial point: They discussed the possibility of getting Ms. Phillips an acting gig to keep her happy," reports The Times. Dauer recalls Moonves saying in a sworn statement that "if Bobbie talks, I’m done.” The Times also reports that there was a "monthslong cascade of hundreds of text messages" about giving Phillips and Dauer's other clients jobs. One role, which Phillips turned down was for a guest spot on Blood and Treasure that paid $1,500 for a day's shooting. The Times reports that "upon learning that Mr. Moonves had tried to find a job for an accuser, the CBS board held an emergency meeting with their lawyers. The focus was on Mr. Moonves’s relationship with Mr. Dauer. Until that point, the lawyers had recommended keeping Mr. Moonves as C.E.O. Now their view was shifting." Weeks later, upon further investigation, Moonves was ousted from CBS.