Posted in: Movies | Tagged: ain't it cool news, fantastic fest, harry knowles, HRL
Harry Knowles Takes Break From Ain't It Cool News Amidst Sexual Assault Controversy
As the nonstop @#$% show of sexual assault and harassment allegations surrounding this year's Fantastic Fest continues, festival co-founder Harry Knowles has stepped away from the website he founded, Ain't It Cool News.
Knowles's sister Dannie will take over running the site in Knowles absence, he announced on Twitter:
Fantastic Fest has been embroiled in scandal this year, following a series of revelations about festival co-founder and Alamo Drafthouse owner Tim League, former Alamo Drafthouse employee Devin Faraci, and Knowles. Faraci parted ways with Alamo in 2016 after a sexual assault allegation was made public, but was apparently quietly rehired by League soon after. When it was revealed that Faraci was still working for Alamo, Todd Brown resigned as director of international programming for the festival, and the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri pulled out of the festival.
Knowles didn't attend Fantastic Fest, and Ain't It Cool News dropped out as a sponsor, amid allegations that Knowles sexually assaulted a woman on several occasions at Alamo Drafthouse events. Additionally, the report claims that the woman, a longtime friend of Tim and Karrie League, informed the pair about the incidents and were told to just try to avoid Knowles. League co-founded Fantastic Fest with Knowles a few years afterward, in 2005. On Tuesday, another former Alamo Drafthouse employee came forward with reports of sexual harassment at at Alamo Drafthouse events, including one involving Knowles.
Several AICN contributors have quit the website in the wake of the allegations. Knowles has "categorically" denied them. League issued a statement apologizing to "the women that we let down," and also didn't attend the festival.
Response to Knowles's departure has ranged from bad…
…to worse…
…to even worser:
A report on Knowles's departure from Variety quotes another Tweet or Facebook post that may have been deleted, or is not publicly available, says that Knowles's plans for the immediate future include "therapy, detox, and getting to a better place."