And Just Like That, Chris Noth dropped from Sex and the City reboot finale
Chris Noth, popularly known as Mr Big in the TV hit Sex and the City has been accused of sexual abuse by five women. In light of this, the Sex and the City reboot show titled And Just Like That has cut his cameo from the final episode. The final episode will be airing on Feburary 3, 2022.
Mr Big/John James Preston dies in the first episode of And Just Like That after experiencing a heart attack while riding a Peloton. Noth was reportedly set to make an appearance during a fantasy sequence where Mr Big meets Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw in the final episode.
WHAT ARE THE ALLEGATIONS:
1. The first allegation is by a woman under the pseudonym 'Zoe'. She is now 40 years old. Zoe said that she met Noth when she was 22 and working for a firm whose services he used. After getting Zoe's phone number, Noth would leave her voicemails to meet him. They met up in West Hollywood where she borrowed a book from Noth. Upon returning the book at his apartment, Zoe says she was raped by the actor.
She did seek medical treatment at the time but did not report him by name. Two years later, she received counselling for months at UCLA’s Rape Crisis Center. This has been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.
2. The second allegation was by a woman with the pseudonym 'Lily'. Lily met Noth at age 25 when she was working in the VIP section of an NYC nightclub. Noth had gotten her number and asked Lily to dinner. The time he set was after the kitchen at the restaurant had closed. The kitchen has been featured in SATC.
'They drank wine until the restaurant closed, and then went to Noth’s apartment, where Lily says the actor forcibly had sex with her.' Immediately after, Lily called a friend in hysterics. But by the next day, as per her friend, she was trying to minimise what had happened. Although, Lily had shared a voicemail Noth left her with the said friend. Her friend recalled the 'tone as ‘I know I did something bad, but I’m trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal''.
After this, Noth continued to message Lily, who kept putting off meeting him again. Some of their text exchanges have been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.
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3. The third accuser is a 30-year-old tech executive who says the alleged encounter happened in 2010. Back then she was working as a hostess and lounge singer at the Manhattan restaurant, Da Marino. She was 18 during the assault and Noth was 55. Under the pseudonym Ava, this person told Daily Beast, '"I love Canadian women," she [Ava] remembers him [Noth] saying, as he repeatedly pulled her on to his lap while groping her and “pressing me on to his erection".' (READ MORE HERE: Third Woman Comes Forward to Accuse ‘Sex and the City’ Star Chris Noth of Sexual Assault)
4. Heather Kristin, a former stand-in actor for Kristin Davis’s Sex and the City character, Charlotte York, has said that allegedly Noth once "slid his hand down my back and over my butt and later joked in front of the crew that he wanted the stand-in for another member of the cast tied up, gagged and brought to my trailer".
Originally titled, 'I was Charlotte’s stand-in on Sex and the City. Some of the behavior I saw still shocks me', Heather wrote in the esaay, "The first time the ‘alpha male’ actor slid his hand down my back and over my butt, I flinched. I was in my mid-20s and had worked as an extra on movie sets for over a decade; I had never been manhandled. ‘That’s your spot, sweetie,’ Noth said, inching even closer."
She also wrote in the same essay, "Noth pointed to the stand-in for Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda and said, "I want that one tied up, gagged and brought to my trailer. When he got near me, I balled up my fists, squared my shoulders and said, ‘This is my and her space.’ He backed up, dramatically putting his hands up in the air and said, ‘Whoa, there, little lady!’ He didn’t even know my (Heather) name. I clenched my jaw and didn’t respond. The crew laughed. But I had had enough; I finally stood up for myself and for the other stand-in."
5. US singer Lisa Gentile is the fifth woman to accuse Noth of groping her 20 years ago at her New York apartment after giving her a lift home from a restaurant. The restaurant mentioned is the same as the one Ava recalled, Da Marino.
On December 23, 2021, Gentile who is now 54 years old, told a 'virtual press conference she had first met the actor at a New York City restaurant in 1998'. She said that one night in 2002, Noth had accompanied her to her apartment where she "quickly became uncomfortable".
Gentile told Rolling Stone, "He started kissing me almost right away. Then he leaned against the kitchen countertop and forcibly pulled me against him. He was slobbering all over me, I quickly became uncomfortable. Then he became more aggressive. I was trying to get him to stop. Then he forced my hands to pull up his shirt, exposing his belly, and then even harder pushed my hands toward his penis. I finally managed to push him away and get out of his grasp and yell, ‘No, I don’t want this!’."
Director Zoe Lister-Jones has also called Noth “a sexual predator” in an Instagram post and claimed that he had acted inappropriately towards her on the set of Law & Order.
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NOTH'S RESPONSE: Noth said in a statment to USA TODAY, "The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women."
ACTIONS TAKEN AGAINST HIM: Other than being removed from the final episode of And Just Like That, Noth has also been dropped as a client by the talent agency, A3 Artists Agency. The 67-year-actor has also been dropped from CBS drama The Equalizer after these allegations came forward.
The leading actresses of Sex And The City: Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis have also expressed support for the women who have accused Noth. The joint statement said, "We support the women who have come forward and shared their painful experience". The statement has also been shared by the actresses on social media
— Kristin Davis (@KristinDavis) December 21, 2021
Noth had also featured in ad for Peloton which has been pulled down. A Peloton spokesperson released a statement, "Every single sexual assault accusation must be taken seriously. We were unaware of these allegations when we featured Chris Noth in our response to HBO’s reboot. As we seek to learn more, we have stopped promoting this video and archived related social posts."