Like brother like brother?
That is what it sounds like if we are to believe the recent allegations made against CNN personality Chris Cuomo.
A former ABC executive producer, Shelley Ross, has now accused the younger Cuomo of the same behavior the former Governor of New York was forced to resign over.
All in the Family
Ross, on Friday, documented a 2005 party where she says the younger Cuomo was highly unprofessional in his behavior.
The former ABC producer dropped the bombshell allegation in a New York Times op-ed.
She stated, “I was at the party with my husband, who sat behind me on an ottoman sipping his Diet Coke as I spoke with work friends.
“When Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock.”
She continued, “’I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,’” he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance.
“’No you can’t,’ I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left.”
She also says she has proof in the form of an apology email sent to her soon after the incident took place.
Ross stated that it had the subject line of “Now that I think of it … I am ashamed.”
In the apology letter, Cuomo wrote, “Though my hearty greeting was a function of being glad to see you … Christian Slater got arrested for a (kind of) similar act (though borne of an alleged negative intent, unlike my own) … and as a husband I can empathize with not liking to see my wife patted as such.
“So pass along my apology to your very good and noble husband … and I apologize to you as well, for ever putting you in such a position.
“Next time, I will remember the lesson, no matter how happy I am to see you.”
Ross, on his apology, stated, “Mr. Cuomo may say this is a sincere apology. I’ve always seen it as an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability.”
She continued, “I never thought that Mr. Cuomo’s behavior was sexual in nature.
“Whether he understood it at the time or not, his form of sexual harassment was a hostile act meant to diminish and belittle his female former boss in front of the staff.”
Cuomo chose to pick and choose what he heard, responding, “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature.
“It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
Now the ball is in CNN’s court, so let’s see what they do about it.
Source: New York Post & Fox News
