Queen Latifah Talks Chris Noth’s ‘Equalizer’ Exit: ‘Justice Has to Prevail’
Queen Latifah is speaking out about costar Chris Noth‘s exit from The Equalizer following multiple sexual assault allegations made against him. Also dropped from the upcoming finale of HBO Max’s And Just Like That…, Noth was announced to be departing the CBS thriller series last month.
“It’s still surreal. It’s such a dicey, delicate situation that requires a great deal of respect. That’s a personal thing that he’s going to have to deal with,” she said in a recent interview with People. “And my feeling is justice has to prevail regardless. I just want the right things to be done, you know?”
When asked how the show would handle the departure of his character, William Bishop, she said, “We are figuring out what we want to do creatively on the show and how we’re going to deal with that character. Chris’s character is obviously a big part of the show, and it was amazing chemistry.”
The allegations against the former Sex and the City star came to light in an article published by The Hollywood Reporter in December 2021, in which two women claimed they had been assaulted by the actor in Los Angeles in 2004 and New York in 2015. More have come forward since.
Noth has since defended himself, saying in a statement, “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual.”
The Law & Order alum has starred alongside Latifah in CBS’ Equalizer since its premiere in February 2021. Currently in its second season, the series’ January 2 episode marked his final appearance, with the next not mentioning his character at all. Season 2 returns with new episodes on February 27, though no word on the future of William Bishop has been announced.
The Equalizer, Sundays, 8/7c, CBS
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How is it that Noth or anyone else can be axed just based on an allegation? I'm really sick of this foolishness and that's coming from a woman who disagrees with this whole Me too nonsense!
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Why are men always on the chopping block before it’s investigated especially since it happened a while back. Sounds like a money grab
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Chris Noths career shouldn't be destroyed on hear say charges. It's a he said she said incident. He was convicted and hung before anything was ever proven. That's so WRONG!!!
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I love The Equalizer but it always seems to be preempted or moved around and has repeats all thectime; what gives
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Unfortunately, there’s a clause in every contract stating you can’t bring negative publicity towards the show. In a court of law he’s innocent until proven guilty but in the court of society it’s usually the other way around.
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The law says innocence till proven guilty. Bottom line. So why is the network treating him like he’s guilty by firing him? He can counter sue for this or the network can decide to leave him on the show/ correct this by bringing him back saying: because his character was being targeted by a bad guy he knew not to get on the plane and only let everyone think he was to throw them off.
Also, I know myself and many people in the population will not care to watch this or episodes that pull in the race card. And that is a shame because other than that it’s an amazing show. This is a tv show. Tv shows are created to provide entainerment.
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It's less of a "he said, she said" thing, and more of a "he said, THEY SAID…independently of each other, with no rationale for why they might just conspire to lie, because that's not really a thing that happens" thing.
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