This is going to shock you! A guy who has a reputation for being a total creep is reportedly a total creep. I KNOW!! I don’t even remember the first time I heard a story about Jeremy Piven being skeevy, or hitting on barely legal teenage girls, or not keeping his hands to himself. Those stories have been out there for a long time. I remember, years and years ago, when Megan Fox was first becoming really famous, there was a story about Piven being really gross in the way he was hitting on her. If anything, his role on Entourage probably helped him – he could be skeevy and gross in daylight and people were just like “hey, he’s The Piv, from Entourage!” Well, who could have predicted that The Piv would be “outed” in the wake of the Weinstein controversy? I swear, we should make a list.
An actress who appeared on “Entourage” has accused Jeremy Piven of sexual assault. Ariane Bellamar tweeted to Piven on Monday, “‘Member when you cornered me in your trailer on the #Entourage set? ‘Member grabbing my boobies on the [couch] without asking??” She also tweeted, “‘Member when I tried to leave; you grabbed me by the ass, looked at yourself in the mirror, & said what a ‘beautiful couple’ we made?”
The actress later clarified that Piven cornered her and “forcefully fondled my breasts & bum” on two occasions. “Once at the [Playboy] mansion & once on [the ‘Entourage’] set.”
You can read Ariane’s tweets here. She also accuses him of sending her “abusive, explicit texts” and she claims that HBO had some knowledge of his behavior too. At first, Piven didn’t release any statements but once Ariane’s tweets started getting picked up by major outlets, he released this statement:
“I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me. It did not happen. It takes a great deal of courage for victims to come forward with their histories, and my hope is that the allegations about me that didn’t happen, do not detract from stories that should be heard.”
“Being peddled about me” is strange wording, right? She didn’t go to Star Magazine – she told her story on her Twitter page, as many assault and harassment victims have been doing with the #MeToo campaign. “Peddled” implies, in my mind, that we’re supposed to believe Ariane is looking for money or attention, that her motives are in question. That sh-t doesn’t fly anymore, Piv. Especially since HIS motives are being questioned by his current and former employers.
CBS’s statement reads, “We are aware of the media reports and are looking into the matter.” Piven currently stars on the network’s show “Wisdom of the Crowd,” which premiered earlier this month.
HBO also released a statement asserting that the network has a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment and that they had not heard of any of any misbehavior from Piven towards Bellamar before Bellamar’s Tuesday allegations.
The statement in full reads: “Today, via the press reports, is the first we are hearing about Ariane Bellamar’s allegations concerning Jeremy Piven. Everyone at HBO and our productions is aware that zero tolerance for sexual harassment is our policy. Anyone experiencing an unsafe working environment has several avenues for making complaints that we take very seriously.”
I really hope Ariane has some receipts about HBO’s knowledge of Piven’s behavior. I would imagine they knew all about it, because Ariane was likely not the only victim. CBS possibly has cleaner hands here, because they only recently started working with him.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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