Queen Latifah on the accusations against Chris Noth: ‘A dicey, delicate situation’

Last month, multiple women told their stories about Chris Noth. Their stories were credible accusations of rape, attempted rape, sexual harassment and sexual abuse, spanning the past two decades. Within days of the first credible accusations coming out, Chris Noth was filed from all of his jobs. Peloton removed their ads with him, Noth was edited out of the remaining episodes of And Just Like That, and most significantly, Noth was flat-out fired from CBS’s The Equalizer. The Equalizer is a “star vehicle” for Queen Latifah, but Noth had a sizable role in the series. Before now, Latifah had not said anything about Noth’s firing or the accusations against him. She has a new interview with People Mag and she spoke about all of it:

Queen Latifah is speaking out about Chris Noth’s dismissal from The Equalizer after a series of sexual assault allegations against him surfaced last month. After the allegations were made public, CBS released a statement on Dec. 20 confirming that Noth, 67, had been removed from the series, which he starred in alongside Latifah. “Chris Noth will no longer film additional episodes of The Equalizer, effective immediately,” the statement said at the time.

About a month later, Latifah, 51, opened up to People (the TV Show!) special contributor Julie Moran about her former costar Noth.

“It’s still surreal. It is such a dicey, delicate situation that requires a great deal of respect,” she said, adding, “That’s a personal thing that he’s going to have to deal with.”

As for how his character is being written off, the actress and singer 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’s obviously a big part of the show and it was amazing chemistry, amazing chemistry,” Latifah continued. “And my feeling is justice has to prevail regardless. I just want the right things to be done, you know?”

Latifah and Noth had been filming The Equalizer together since 2020. The first season aired in February 2021, and season 2 followed in October. Noth played William Bishop, a former CIA director, on the series. Latifah is his counterpart, a former CIA operative named Robyn McCall.

[From People]

This irritated me: “That’s a personal thing that he’s going to have to deal with.” I understand that it’s not “on” Latifah to condemn him or speak in detail about a situation which is likely out of her hands. She was aiming for non-committal across the board, and I think her words are open to interpretation. My hope is that this – “And my feeling is justice has to prevail regardless. I just want the right things to be done, you know?” – is a harsh assessment. I hope her sense of justice is “Noth never works again, his wife divorces him and he’s charged with crimes.”

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.