Guys Like Chris D’Elia Wouldn’t Thrive If We Didn’t Give Passes to Men Like Bill Clinton
By: Shannon Ashley
Tags: Society, Culture, Politics, Women, Equality

Back in June, when I first wrote about the allegations against comedian Chris D’Elia, some people (ahem, men) thought I way was too hard on the Hollywood star. Several dudes privately reached out to me to say I was “overreacting” and that men need to be able to interact with women without fear of sexual harassment allegations. One reader blocked me because he felt I was being so unjust.

Another guy commented that the girls were lying, just because D’Elia’s attorneys released emails with some of his accusers to suggest that they were willing participants in any flirtations.

Oh, please.

Chris D’Elia hasn’t been able to offer any real defense because he doesn’t seem to think he was ever really wrong. Yes, we all know there are underage girls who flirt with celebrities that flirt with them. Are we really expecting children to have more common sense than grown men with power and privilege?

At any rate, the allegations against Chris D’Elia have since grown, and now they’re not about underage girls. More women have come forward to say that D’Elia exposed himself to them.

Actor Megan Drust told CNN that she had marked D’Elia as “safe” when she agreed to give him a ride home after lunch with a mutual friend.

“We are both sitting there and I’m like, ‘Where are we going?’ And Chris is leaning up against the door of the passenger side and looking at me in this really weird way and then he started to try to make flirty small talk. I was very confused because it just didn’t fit the moment. Then he took down his zipper and asked me to touch him and I said, ‘What are you doing? No.’ And because I wouldn’t touch him, he started to masturbate. I couldn’t believe it.”

It gets worse, she says.

“I get out and I have the door open and I walk out into the street and I’m saying, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I remember saying, ‘You’re defiling my car.’ I didn’t want to make him mad or upset because you’re in survival mode, you know? He climaxed in his pants and then he zipped everything up and I said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

Drust says she told a couple of friends about the experience at the time, and both friends corroborated her story with CNN.

A few months later, she ran into D’Elia again at a restaurant in LA.

“I’m standing there talking to my friends and I remember a guy’s voice with his lips right to my ear say, 'You.' I turned around and it was him. I just remember being very flustered and very uncomfortable.”

Another friend of Drust’s confirmed that encounter with D’Elia to CNN.

A second woman spoke to CNN and said that D’Elia exposed himself to her when she was the manager of Kimpton Schofield Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.

She got a call from D’Elia around midnight when he was a guest in March of 2018. He said his air-conditioner wasn’t working. She went up to his room by herself since there wasn’t an electrician available.

“When I knocked on the door, he opened the door and he was completely naked. I was surprised, and I was annoyed that I just came all the way up just so he could expose himself to me.”

The manager walked back to the front desk without saying a word. She says D’Elia called her back upstairs about the AC, but she refused to come up. She told two coworkers about the incident and reported it to the hotel’s management. She says management took zero action and acted like it wasn’t anything unusual. Today, the Kimpton Hotel Group denies they received a report.

Both accounts jive with the attitude portrayed in Laura Vitarelli’s story. She told CNN that the comedian exposed himself to her and a friend at his hotel in 2015.

The two friends met D’Elia after one of his comedy shows in New York. They took fan photos and he invited them to a party.

From CNN:

Vitarelli recalled that when they walked into D’Elia’s room, the lights were off and he was watching "Cops" and eating a bowl of shrimp scampi. She said D’Elia asked them to put their cell phones in a basket upon entering the room. "There was no sign of a party at all," Vitarelli said. "He said he was going to make us drinks and her and I were both a little nervous just because it really didn’t look like he was about to throw a party. There was nobody else there." Feeling a little nervous and "deceived," she said they accepted the drinks. Vitarelli noted D’Elia did not pour himself one. Vitarelli said D’Elia then sat between them on the couch and almost immediately, "put one of each of his hands down our backsides and started groping us." Vitarelli said she looked at her friend, who looked "frightened," and they made up an excuse to leave. "He got up with us and followed us to the door and said, 'Are you sure you want to leave?' And he pulled out his penis and it was fully erect," Vitarelli told CNN. "It was very uncomfortable for the both of us, and we knew we had to get out of there so we left as fast as we could." Her friend, who confirmed the incident to CNN, asked that her name not be included in this story for fear of backlash from D’Elia’s fan base.

It’s not just women or survivors who’ve spoken up against D’Elia. According to fellow comedian Bill Dawes:

“He was very proud of his body and he would expose himself in front of his guys he was on the road with and other male comics and he would do it kind of as a joke. He would expose himself in front of other women when other guys were in the room with him.”

A female comedian also spoke to CNN but asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions. She claims she and D’Elia have been friends for more than 10 years.

“We used to hang out at the 101 Café after sets and the way he would speak about women was degrading, disrespectful and demeaning to women.”

Both she and Bill Dawes both claimed the initial allegations against D’Elia were not surprising. In fact, they were surprised his name hadn’t come up… earlier.