‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ Cuts Ties With Music Producer Following Sexual Misconduct Allegation

Denise Petski
·3-min read

Giovanni Cianci, music producer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been fired after a woman accused him of sexual misconduct, we’ve learned.

In an Instagram post, musician Paige Stark alleges Cianci “harassed and attempted to assault” her. Stark told Deadline’s sister pub Variety, which first reported Cianci’s firing, that the incident took place in 2010 at the CMJ Music Marathon Conference. At the time, Cianci worked at Lookout Management. He was hired as music booker for Late Show in 2017.

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A source with knowledge of the situation told Deadline that lawyers for ViacomCBS became aware of Stark’s Instagram post and Cianci “is no longer with the show.”

Cianci was responsible for booking and producing music segments on Late Show, working with supervising producer Emily Gertler and the CBS late-night show’s talent booking team. Prior to joining Colbert, he was a partner in Bassline Management after working as a talent manager at Lookout Management and the Creed Company.

Cianci could not be reached for comment.

You can read Stark’s entire Instagram post below.

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

Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.

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