Former Ellen employees accuse top producers of rampant sexual misconduct and harassment

BuzzFeed News

Hours after Ellen DeGeneres' apology to her staff Thursday over her show's toxic workplace culture in response to a bombshell Buzzfeed report, Buzzfeed has released another report after speaking to 36 former staffers detailing alleged sexual misconduct and harassment among her top staffers. "One ex-employee said head writer and executive producer Kevin Leman asked him if he could give him a hand job or perform oral sex in a bathroom at a company party in 2013," writes Buzzfeed's Krystie Lee Yandoli. "Another said they separately saw Leman grab a production assistant’s penis. In May 2017, another former employee also said she saw Leman grope a production assistant in a car and kiss his neck. Nearly a dozen former employees, who range from longtime, senior-level employees to production assistants, said it was also common for Leman to make sexually explicit comments in the office, like pointing out male colleagues’ bulges in their crotches, or ask them questions like, 'Are you a top or a bottom?'" Yandoli also reports that Ed Glavin, one of Ellen's trio of executive producers, whom The Hollywood Reporter said is expected to be ousted from his job, “had a reputation for being handsy with women,” especially in the control room, and managed the team through fear and intimidation. “You could definitely see the creep factor and the creepy touching. That was out in the open for everybody to see,” one former employee told Buzzfeed. “Obviously, no one wants that and no one wants to be uncomfortably touched by someone … but you didn’t want to piss them off or you would be fired, so it was just that culture of fear.” Another former employee alleged that "Glavin would call over producers and assistants to sit near him when the show was filming segments they had worked on and, in front of nearly 30 other people in the control room, would touch them inappropriately." Yandoli adds that a total of 47 former employees said Glavin led with intimidation and fear on a daily basis, including one who alleged that Glavin flipped over a table and chair while screaming after turning in their notice. Buzzfeed also alleges that Glavin would use a button that shut his office door and his personal office shower as an intimidation tactic and to make people uncomfortable. Glavin did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the allegations, but Leman said in a statement: "I started at the Ellen Show as a PA more than 17 years ago and have devoted my career to work my way to the position I now hold. While my job as head writer is to come up with jokes — and, during that process, we can occasionally push the envelope — I’m horrified that some of my attempts at humor may have caused offense. I have always aimed to treat everyone on the staff with kindness, inclusivity and respect. In my whole time on the show, to my knowledge, I’ve never had a single HR or inter-personal complaint made about me, and I am devastated beyond belief that this kind of malicious and misleading article could be published." Yandoli also spoke to a former employee who accuses co-executive producer Jonathan Norman of grooming him over a period of time with work-related perks, and then attempting to perform oral sex on him. In a statement, Norman said he is "100% categorically denying these allegations. I have never had a single complaint against me in my career. I have never 'groomed' anyone. I have never done anything to harm another staff member. Ever. The person I believe you are referring to has ulterior motives for bringing down the show and has been acting with malice towards the show." Yandoli reports that former Ellen staffers believe DeGeneres is ignorant of her show's toxic workplace because she doesn't spend a lot of time interacting with the staff while her executive producers "insulate" her. “Everyone acted really differently around her,” one former employee said. “There’s a show that’s happening behind the show, the show that the executive producers have us all put on for her when she comes to the offices.” In a statement on Thursday, Warner Bros. said it "hoped to determine the validity and extent of publicly reported allegations and to understand the full breadth of the show’s day-to-day culture." ALSO: Ellen producers reportedly demanded that guests compliment Ellen DeGeneres on air to stroke her ego.