Giovanni Cianci, the music booker for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been fired following a series of harassment allegations and attempted assault allegations made by Takashi Miyaki singer and drummer Paige Stark. Stark revealed these allegations in a post on Instagram, which was accompanied with screenshots of an email sent to Aram Goldberg who Stark incorrectly believed was Cianci’s boss at the time of the incident.
Stark’s post detailed Cianci’s alleged behavior during the 2010 CMJ Music Marathon held at various venues in New York City, while he was working for Lookout Management. She discussed meeting Gio, claiming that he held a “weird energy” and alleged that he first attempted to follow her and a friend into the women’s restroom. The performer then went on to allege that Cianci made inappropriate comments regarding her appearance, in addition to alleged advances when the two were alone in an elevator.
During this alleged encounter, Stark states that Cianci allegedly tried to kiss her and allegedly pinned her up against the wall as she resisted. She then states that she managed to escape to call her boyfriend in the bathroom, before calling on a friend to help. Following this incident, she alleged that Cianci continued to harass her on social media for months. She also alleges that there have been more complaints against Cianci.
“He followed me and my band mate to a nearby bar and kept touching me and being in my personal space,” Stark explains. ” 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.”
The post’s Instagram caption states that she first attempted to bring these allegations up to Goldberg during the #MeToo movement back in 2017.
“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,” Stark explained. “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.”
Cianci has since deleted all forms of his social media accounts. He will be replaced by Kateri Palen, a music segment producer who has worked on Colbert for five years.
Red Stark’s full Instagram caption below:
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
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