Steven Spielberg Withdraws Involvement With Michael Weatherly Series ‘Bull’ Over Sexual Harassment Allegations

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television finally withdrew its involvement in CBS’ Bull, months after Eliza Dushku came forward with sexual harassment allegations against star Michael Weatherly.

“Steven Spielberg, Amblin Television, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are no longer attached to Bull,” a representative told Deadline Thursday.

Spielberg and Amblin Television chiefs Frank and Falvey were executive producers on the show for the first three seasons. Their decision to pull out of the show came the same day CBS renewed it for a fourth season.

Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, have been supporters of the Time’s Up Movement and met with Dushku about the situation, reports Deadline. He said he no longer wanted his company associated with the show.

In March, Dushku told Deadline she spoke with Spielberg about Amblin’s association with Bull and the other heads of Time’s Up.

“We sat and brainstormed and discussed possible solutions for this systemic imbalance of power, the abuse and harassment that we’ve been seeing and hearing and experiencing and both in our industry and beyond,” Dushku said at the time. “That’s something that you know that I can and will continue to contribute to and I want to look at it from my own experience.”

Dushku starred in three episodes of Bull in 2017. In December 2018, the New York Times revealed Dushku and CBS reached a $9.5 million settlement with CBS after she complained about Weatherly’s alleged lewd behavior. She later wrote a detailed Boston Globe op-ed about the toxic atmosphere on the show’s set and the sexual harassment she faced. After she filed a complaint, she said she was dropped from the show.

“In explaining his bad behavior, Weatherly, who plays Dr. Bull, claimed I didn’t get his attempt at humor. That’s how a perpetrator rationalizes when he is caught. For the record, I grew up in Boston with three older brothers and have generally been considered a tomboy,” Dushku wrote in the Globe. “I do not want to hear that I have a ‘humor deficit’ or can’t take a joke. I did not overreact. I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired.”

Weatherly later issued a statement, saying he was not part of Dushku’s firing, but apologized for his behavior, which was “both not funny and not appropriate.”

CBS also issued a statement at the time, which read, “The allegations in Ms. Dushku’s claims are an example that, while we remain committed to a culture defined by a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace, our work is far from done. The settlement of these claims reflects the projected amount that Ms. Dushku would have received for the balance of her contract as a series regular, and was determined in a mutually agreed upon mediation process at the time.”

In January 2018, Dushku also claimed she was sexually abused by a stuntman when she was a 12-year-old child actress working on True Lies. The stuntman, Joel Kramer, denied the allegations.

Bull airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo credit: CBS