Bryan Callen vows not to "lay low," but will take a leave of absence from his podcast in wake of sexual assault and misconduct allegations

Los Angeles Times

In an impassioned video posted to his Instagram account Sunday, the comedian and The Goldbergs actor categorically denied sexual misconduct allegations four women made against him last week in the Los Angeles Times. Callen said that despite advice to the contrary, he would not “post a statement and disappear” in the aftermath of the allegations. “I never thought in a million years that I’d be sitting here defending myself for something I did not do 21 years ago,” he said, referring to comedian Katherine Fiore Tigerman, who accused him in The Times story of raping her in 1999. He added: “I have been characterized as someone that no one, no one who knows me — not my friends, not my family, not my fans — would ever recognize. And that’s because that is not who I am. That is not something I could do — those are not things that I would ever do. That is not how I ever lived my life.”