The music producer for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has been fired after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
According to Variety, musician Paige Stark recently came forward to accuse Giovanni Cianci, who has been booking musical talent for Colbert since 2017, of sexually harassing her and pinning her against the wall of an elevator in 2010. Stark posted about the incident on Instagram last month:
In 2010 at the CMJ Music Festival @giocianci harassed and attempted to assault me. Immediately after this event he would not leave me alone. He followed me and my band mate to a nearby bar and kept touching me and being in my personal space. I felt so unsafe I had to call another manager I knew- a man to come to physically remove Gio. Later I heard more stories about Gio. I told several friends and my boyfriend at the time but was too scared to come forward publicly. I blamed myself despite the fact that I did nothing to warrant Gio’s advances or aggression. Countless times I have seen men cover each other, call women crazy and shift blame. At the time this happened I felt no one would support or believe me. I was young and scared.
Stark said she reached out to Cianci’s boss at the time to alert him, and received no response. She also told Variety that Cianci continued to send her unwanted texts and Facebook messages for months after the incident.
ViacomCBS reportedly reached out to Stark after she posted the Instagram. They have not yet responded to Variety’s request for comment, though reportedly an unnamed source confirmed Cianci is no longer with the show.