Source: Washington Post
Days after multiple women accused Neil deGrasse Tyson of sexual harassment and assault, Fox Entertainment Group and the producers of the television series “Cosmos” said they were investigating the celebrity astrophysicist.
The allegations were reported Thursday on the website Patheos, which features writing on religion, science and the skeptic community.
In the report, Bucknell University astronomer Katelyn Allers said Tyson grabbed her arm and reached into her dress while looking at a tattoo of the solar system. Ashley Watson, a former assistant to Tyson who worked on his latest “Cosmos” series, said she quit her job after Tyson made inappropriate sexual advances.Patheos has previously reported allegations by musician Tchiya Amet, who said Tyson drugged and raped her when they were graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin.
Saturday night, Tyson posted a lengthy response to the allegations on Facebook. He wrote that he hadn’t recognized Allers’s and Watson’s discomfort at the time of the incidents they described. He acknowledged that he had a short relationship with Amet in the 1980s, but rejected her allegation of assault.
Tyson wrote that he would fully cooperate with the investigation into the allegations.
In a statement, the producers of “Cosmos” told The Washington Post that they are “committed to a thorough investigation of this matter and to act accordingly as soon as it is concluded. … The credo at the heart of COSMOS is to follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
Fox Entertainment and National Geographic, which air the show, said they had just become aware of the allegations and are reviewing the reports. 21st Century Fox jointly owns the National Geographic channel with the National Geographic Society.
In an interview with The Post, Watson described an uncomfortable night with Tyson in May 2018. She had been working as his assistant on the Santa Fe set of “Cosmos” for several months and was hoping that Tyson would ask her to continue working for him when production moved to Europe.
But when Tyson invited her to his home after a day on the set, Watson said, he removed his shirt so…
The post Neil deGrasse Tyson under investigation after accusations of sexual misconduct appeared first on FeedBox.