Fox axes Charlie Walk from 'The Four' amid sexual harassment allegations
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Two days after allegations of sexual harassment first emerged against record company exec Charlie Walk, Fox has axed the Republic Records chief fromThe Four: Battle for Stardom.
With the singing competition show scheduled to air its latest pre-taped episode tomorrow, sources tell Deadline that this move follows Walk being placed on leave on Wednesday by Universal Music Group. That occurred pending the outcome of an investigation into the claimed sexual misconduct and as another woman has come forward to accuse The Four judge of inappropriate behavior.
Co-judged by Sean “Diddy” Combs, DJ Khaled and singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor, the newbie singing competition show which debuted on January 4, is in the last stage of taping for its first season. Walk will be seen on tomorrow’s show, which was shot last week. However, he will not be on next week’s airing, we hear.
The fallout comes after Life Lab founder Tristan Coopersmith went online to describe an escalating pattern of apparently very inappropriate behavior by Walk when he was at Sony Music.
In an open letter posted Monday, Coopersmith detailed how Walk would supposedly invite her into his corporate office and make lewd comments. She also described her claims how the exec would send her sexually explicit text messages, grope her at business dinners and, on one occasion, drunkenly attempted to push her into bed with him.
Walk called Coopersmith’s accusations against him both “untrue” and “false.”
“It is very upsetting to learn of this untrue allegation made by someone who worked with me 15 years ago, without incident,” Walk asserted later Monday. “There has never been a single HR claim against me at any time during my 25+ year career, spanning three major companies. I have consistently been a supporter of the women’s movement and this is the first time I have ever heard of this or any other allegation — and it is false.”
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