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'Honest Trailers' Creator Andy Signore Suspended Following Sexual Abuse Accusations
Signore at the MTV Movie Awards in 2007. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Today in Men: writer/director Andy Signore, creator of the popular "Honest Trailers" Youtube series, has been accused of sexual abuse by two different women, one of whom formerly worked as his intern.
One of Signore's accusers, Emma Bowers, took to Twitter on Thursday to speak out in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal currently roiling Hollywood. In a series of tweets, she candidly described Signore—for whom she was working on some viral videos at the time—allegedly saying he wanted to masturbate to photos of her, and telling her, "You can read a book for all I care."
Anyway, here’s the whole story about how the @screenjunkies guy wanted to jack off in front of me pic.twitter.com/wpKlXT2fgN
— Cruel Marx Engels Thesis (@hyenasandgin) October 6, 2017
Bowers expressed regret over not having documented all of Bowers' alleged harassment, writing, "“I wish I’d fought more, wish I’d screencapped his messages, but I was young, scared, and dumb. So I didn’t. Girls in Hollywood get taken advantage of so much. I just want people to believe me when I say this happened.”
April Dawn, a ScreenJunkies fan who had appeared on its Movie Fights Youtube series, spoke out on Twitter on Friday about multiple instances in which Signore allegedly attempted to sexually assault her, writing that she met Signore at a Comic-Con in 2015 and he invited her to a ScreenJunkies party, but "the party ended up being him alone in his hotel room trying to force himself on me."
I know many have questions regarding what happened to me regarding Andy, here is a more detailed summary of what I've been going through. pic.twitter.com/tIbHnLBrOB
— April Dawn (@April13Dawn) October 6, 2017
Dawn also alleged that Signore photographed her and tried to use sex toys on her without her consent, and promised her employment at ScreenJunkies in exchange for sexual favors.
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Dawn said she reached out to ScreenJunkies' HR department two months ago, along with two other women who'd had similar experiences with Signore, but she claims the department declined to take action or respond to her complaint until she went public with her story on Friday.
Received a call from Screen Junkies HR saying they want to talk to me, after not getting back to me for over a month NOW they want to listen
— April Dawn (@April13Dawn) October 6, 2017
Signore has not commented publicly on the accusations of sexual abuse leveled against him, but the ScreenJunkies channel and its owner, Defy Media, said on Friday that they have been "conducting a thorough investigation into allegations made against Andy Signore and are preparing to respond to those allegations and take appropriate action."
According to the statement, Signore's employment has been suspended at ScreenJunkies as well as Defy Media, where he serves as SVP of Content, pending the investigation.
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