Louis C.K. has a new movie out and it seems he's attempting to emulate Woody Allen in more ways than one. It's a self-funded flick that USA Today refers to as passionate defense of statutory rape, entitled "I love you, Daddy." The film was not only bank-rolled by C.K. but according to reports "filmed in secret" this June. Not unlike Woody Allen, C.K. has a habit of building his situational and stand-up comedy around himself, his life, his persona. "I love you, Daddy" is no different in this case.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Louis CK making an entire movie to "two sides" Woody Allen while being accused himself is the most elaborate "I'm sorry you were offended"</p>— C (@curtisfglenn) <a href="https://twitter.com/curtisfglenn/status/907783235119304704">September 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
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In this case he plays Glen Topher, a TV writer living in New York dealing with an unstrung ex-wife and manipulative 17-year-old daughter. The film features John Malkovich as the media mogul Glen most admires. Malkovich's character wants to have sex with Glen's underage daughter, China who is sickened by the filmmaker's reputation for targetting underage girls.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Louis CK's secret movie is like raunchy Woody Allen, complete with a 68 yr old Malkovich quasi-dating a 17 yr old girl. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TIFF?src=hash">#TIFF</a></p>— Matthew Belloni (@THRMattBelloni) <a href="https://twitter.com/THRMattBelloni/status/906667832011870208">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote>
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"Don't believe everything you hear about people," C.K.'s character Glen implores his daughter. Keep that passionate plea in the back of your head for now, it gets deep in a minute.
From the <i>USA Today</i>
<blockquote>"Then the older, goateed filmmaker begins to court Glen's spoiled high-school senior, fetishizing her as she tries on skimpy outfits at Barneys, inviting her to Paris.
Glen is frozen and flummoxed. With his ex out of the picture, what should he do? As the audience laughed around me, my stomach began to roil.
What he doesn't do is shut down a budding romance between his underage daughter and a 68-year-old man. Instead, C.K. gives Byrne a speech passionately defending a relationship that could amount to statutory rape."</blockquote>
Last year, <i>Vulture</i> interviewed C.K. and touched on what's become a growing PR nightmare as more and more allegations of sexual harrassment, specifically against female comedians, come to light. <quote>"You can't touch stuff like that. If you need your public profile to be all positive, you're sick in the head."</quote>
<i>New York Times</i> brought up the sexual harrassment rumors which he artfully dodged. Since <i>Gawker</i> first broke the story (without mentioning his name directly) he has been hesitatant to speak out about the accusations. "If you actually participate in a rumor, you make it bigger and you make it real." When pressed on whether it <i>is</i> real, he replied “it’s not real.” “No. They’re rumors. That’s all it is.”
Tig Notaro and Roseanne Barr are just a couple of the female comedians who have spoken out in disgust at Louie's actions. "I think it’s important to take care of that, to handle that, because it’s serious to be assaulted,” Notaro said. “It’s serious to be harassed. It’s serious, it’s serious, it’s serious.” C.K.'s response to the <i>Times</i>: “I don’t know why she said the things she’s said, I really don’t. I don’t think talking about that stuff in the press and having conversations over press lanes is a good idea.”
Notaro's Amazon show "One Mississipi" credits Louis C.K. as executive producer, Notaro told <i>The Daily Beast</i> that she hadn't spoken to him in over a year since an "incident." Tellingly, the special in question in which C.K. produced, a character played by Notaro's wife is forced to watch her boss masturbate during a pitch meeting. "We wanted to show that you can be assaulted without even being touched," Notaro told <i>THR</i>.
<a href="http://gawker.com/5894527/which-beloved-comedian-likes-to-force-female-comics-to-watch-him-jerk-off">In the 2015 Gawker story</a>, (which does not mention Louis or the alleged victims by name) they explain that the comedian has a "very powerful manager" and goes on to note that after contacting the victim to confirm the story she explains: "first of all, your facts are wrong. and secondly, i don't want to be a part of this story. i'm sure you understand." Asked which facts specifically were wrong and if the incident ever happened, she responded: "please don't contact me about this matter anymore. Breast of luck to you." The comedian's behavior is especially strange when considering the fact that he claims to be "very inspired" by his "radical feminist daughter."
