‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Music Producer Fired After Sexual Harassment Accusation

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert music producer Giovanni Cianci was fired from the show after being accused of sexual harassment in a 2010 incident.

“Gio is no longer employed by the show,” a source told Variety. The report added that the music producer’s exit follows L.A.-based musician Paige Stark posting a screenshot on Instagram in which she detailed a 2010 incident with Cianci. Cianci has been a producer on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert since 2017.

“In 2010 at the CMJ Music Festival [Gio Cianci] harassed and attempted to assault me. Immediately after this event he would not leave me alone. He followed me and my band mate to a nearby bar and kept touching me and being in my personal space,” wrote Stark in her Instagram post. “I felt so unsafe I had to call another manager I knew — a man to come to physically remove Gio. Later I heard more stories about Gio — I blamed myself despite the fact that I did nothing to warrant Gio’s advances or aggression.”

View this post on Instagram

In 2010 at the CMJ Music Festival @giocianci harassed and attempted to assault me. Immediately after this event he would not leave me alone. He followed me and my band mate to a nearby bar and kept touching me and being in my personal space. I felt so unsafe I had to call another manager I knew- a man to come to physically remove Gio. Later I heard more stories about Gio. I told several friends and my boyfriend at the time but was too scared to come forward publicly. I blamed myself despite the fact that I did nothing to warrant Gio’s advances or aggression. Countless times I have seen men cover each other, call women crazy and shift blame. At the time this happened I felt no one would support or believe me. I was young and scared. This event damaged me so greatly that for a period of time I was afraid to use my own image to promote my music, performed under aliases, and gave my band a name no one would likely ever attribute to me. I can not be silent anymore. In 2017 in the midst of the #metoo movement I attempted to privately reach out to Gio’s former boss Aram Goldberg, who is now a manager at Monotone. I was surprised to receive no response despite the fact that we had emailed in the recent past. As I am reading the stories of other survivors of harassment and assault I feel concerned Gio has probably hurt other women , and will again. His abuse of power was so great when he was an assistant at Lookout management, it makes me shudder to think what he is now capable of in his position as music producer for the @colbertlateshow .This bullshit has to stop now. No more coverups. STOP PROTECTING MEN WHO ABUSE THEIR POWER.

A post shared by Paige Stark (@drpaigestark) on Jul 22, 2020 at 1:35am PDT

Stark also told Variety that the incident took place while Cianci was working at Lookout Management, where he was employed from 2002 through 2014.

Stark said that after expressing interest in her band, Cianci met her at a music conference in 2010 where he made inappropriate advances toward her when the two were alone in an elevator. Stark added that Cianci attempted to kiss her, and that he pinned her against the wall when she resisted. Stark’s friends corroborated her story to Variety.

After being “too scared to come forward publicly,” Stark emailed Cianci’s former employer at Lookout Managements in 2017 — in the midst of the #MeToo movement — but did not receive a response.

After posting the screenshot of her account on Instagram, however, lawyers from ViacomCBS reached out to her directly, affirming that the company takes such matters very seriously, according to a source that spoke to Variety.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.