Fox News Sexual Harassment Scandal Spreads to Hollywood Agency

ICM Partners launches investigation into agents handling of client's harassment case against news network exec.

May 3, 2017 9:51 am
Fox News Scandal Bleeds to West Coast
Members of the National Organization of Women (NOW) protest outside of Fox headquarters a day after the popular television network fired host Bill O'Reilly on April 20, 2017 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Fox News Scandal Bleeds to West Coast
Members of the National Organization of Women (NOW) protest outside of Fox headquarters a day after the popular television network fired host Bill O’Reilly on April 20, 2017 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Fox News‘ sexual harassment scandal has spread from the media capital of New York City to the palm-tree lined streets of Hollywood.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, talent agency ICM Partners has brought in a litigator to investigate whether its agents discouraged a Fox News contributor from reporting a sexual harassment claim.

Sources told the HuffPost that the Fox News contributor is Tamara Holder, who alleges that former Fox News Latino vice president Francisco Cortes tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. When she told her agents, they advised her not to report it. He was eventually fired, and Holder reached a settlement with Fox to the tune of $2.5 million, per The New York Times.

This comes after a spate of negative press for the cable net, as embattled talk show host Bill O’Reilly was ousted last month; current talker Sean Hannity (as well as Rupert Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff) warned of “the end of Fox News as we know it“; and this past Monday, co-president Bill Shine resigned.

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.