Last week, yet another TV heavyweight, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, was accused of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Former Mad Men writer Kater Gordon told The Information that Weiner had asked to see her naked during a late-night writing session eight years ago.
“He told me that I owed it to him to let him see me naked,” she alleged. “It felt like a lose-lose situation.”
Now, Weiner has broken his silence about the accusations for the first time while speaking at a Q&A with writer and producer Jenji Kohan.
“The allegation is not true. And this is a very important topic and it’s a topic that’s been an obsession of mine in my work and my life. And for like 92 hours of the show we wanted people to be having this conversation and it’s great we’re having this conversation,” Weiner explained, as reported by Variety.
Questioned why Kater would make the allegations, Weiner said he had been a “demanding boss”.
“I don’t want to speak to someone else’s character, but I will say this: I have hired dozens of women over the years and dozens of people. I am a demanding boss. Especially in the early years, it was very hard to do it. I had a lot of stress and – you know this – it’s very lonely,” he recounted.
“When I think back on it, if I had to do it differently, letting people go and being mad about having to rewrite everything – I was just angry a lot of the time.”
The Mad Men showrunner added that “the person I am now would definitely do it in a different way”.
As Vulture reports, former Mad Men producer Marti Noxon showed her support for Kater with a series of tweets.
“I believe her. I was at work with her the day after what she described transpired. I remember clearly how shaken and subdued Kater was — and continued to be from that day on,” Noxon wrote.
“He is devilishly clever and witty, but he is also, in the words of one of his colleagues, an “emotional terrorist” who will badger, seduce and even tantrum in an attempt to get his needs met.”
RELATED: Transparent Actor Jeffrey Tambor Quits Show After Sexual Harassment Allegations
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