Josh Hartnett says Louis CK has been ‘pretty shameless’ in making comeback after sexual misconduct scandal

Comedian has joked about allegations made against him in new material

Josh Hartnett has called Louis CK’s return to comedy “pretty shameless”.

The actor was discussing sex offender and former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in an interview with The Guardian when he used comedian CK as an example of someone who has made a career comeback following a scandal.

In 2017, The New York Times published an exposé including accusations from multiple women that CK exposed himself and masturbated in front of them. CK later admitted the sexual misconduct.

“The shameless seem to be finding it easy to make a comeback,” said Hartnett. “Louis CK has been pretty shameless. Harvey Weinstein, if he had the tiniest bit of daylight in there, would find a way to get back in. Those are situations that freak me out.”  

In April, CK released a new stand-up special in which he joked about women who have been sexually assaulted. Throughout the programme, CK also made jokes about necrophilia, paedophilia, terrorism, people with disabilities and the Holocaust.

Hartnett worked with Weinstein on a number of films, including The Faculty (1998), Halloween H20 (1998), O (2001) and Lucky Number Slevin (2006).

On the producer’s fall from grace, he said: “There are all sorts of rumours about guys like that which permeate the business and you think, ‘That’s awful.’ The casting couch was a thing people joked about when I was first in the industry, so it was an open secret that this business is a little bit f***ed up.”