The release of Louis C.K.'s I Love You, Daddy has been canceled in the aftermath of sexual misconduct allegations made against the writer-director. On Thursday, the New York Times published a story in which five women accused C.K. of sexual harassment, confirming long-standing rumors about the comedian's behavior. HBO and FX network, two entities that have had fruitful relationships with the stand-up comedian and TV star, have both taken action amid the scandal, with HBO electing to cut ties entirely while FX announced it will conduct a review of the situation.

Louis C.K. developed I Love You, Daddy in secrecy before entering the movie in this year's Toronto Film Festival. Starring C.K., Chloe Grace Moretz and John Malkovich, the film concerns a successful television writer (C.K.) who becomes alarmed when his college-aged daughter (Moretz) draws the amorous attentions of a sleazy old film director (Malkovich). Shot in black-and-white, the film is an obvious homage to Woody Allen, a filmmaker who has himself faced allegations of sexual abuse over many years. The Orchard picked up I Love You, Daddy after TIFF for $5 million and was set to release the film on November 17th.

In the wake of the bombshell New York Times story about Louis C.K.'s conduct, The Orchard has now scrapped plans to release I Love You, Daddy. The company did not elaborate on their decision to pull the film, per Variety. On Thursday, plans for the film's New York premiere were shelved after it emerged that the New York Times was about to release its story on the allegations against C.K. The comedian was also set to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert but was replaced at the last minute.

Louis CK

The accusations against Louis C.K. come amid a whirlwind of sexual misconduct scandals involving powerful figures in the entertainment industry. In October, producer Harvey Weinstein was the subject of a New York Times story publicly exposing his long history of sexual assault. The story opened the floodgates on Hollywood actresses coming forward with their own stories about Weinstein's history of abuse, and resulted in the producer being kicked out of the Motion Picture Academy.

Late in October, Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual assault by Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, who alleged that Spacey had molested him when Rapp was only 14 and Spacey 26. As with the Weinstein story, the initial accusation led to a deluge of more stories about Spacey's misconduct. The actor has since been fired from the Netflix series House of Cards, and will now be replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott's already-completed All the Money in the World.

During what has been a soul-searching two months for Hollywood, figures as various as Dustin Hoffman, Jeremy Piven, Ed Westwick, Brett Ratner, Matt Weiner and Jeffrey Tambor have all been accused of a range of misdeeds.

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Source: Variety