Time’s Up has dissolved an advisory board consisting of several A-list actresses and celebrities following its mishandling of harassment allegations against former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. The 71-member advisory board, titled the Global Leadership Board, featured a broad range of activists and celebrities including Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Chastain, Natalie Portman, Janelle Monáe, Brie Larson, Tessa Thompson, Padma Lakshmi, Laura Dern, America Ferrera, Kerry Washington, Tarana Burke, Alyssa Milano, Gretchen Carlson, Amy Schumer, and Julianne Moore. The members were notified September 5 via email from Nina Shaw, a co-founder of Time’s Up. “This is notice to you that effective immediately, Time’s Up has dissolved the Global Leadership Board,” she wrote, per Variety. “There is no need for your individual resignations, as the group no longer exists.”
Time’s Up has faced scrutiny since the release of the New York attorney general’s report on sexual-misconduct allegations against Cuomo in August. In addition to finding that the governor did engage in “conduct constituting sexual harassment under federal and New York State law,” the report shared that Time’s Up leaders collaborated with the Cuomo administration on how to respond. Later that month, a Washington Post report found that CEO Tina Tchen and attorney Roberta Kaplan had stopped the release of a statement supporting former Cuomo aide and the first woman to accuse him of misconduct, Lindsey Boylan. Kaplan stepped down on August 9. Tchen resigned on August 26 and was replaced by Monifa Bandele in an interim capacity. On September 4, the advocacy group, which formed in 2018 in response to the Me Too movement, announced that its governing board — including Shonda Rhimes, Jurnee Smollett, Eva Longoria, and Ashley Judd — would resign over the next 30 days and a new board would be selected. Four of the 22 board members, including Judd, plan to stay for a transition. “We see the current crisis within TIME’S UP as an important opportunity for growth and change,” their statement reads. “TIME’S UP is ready for new leadership, and we want to move forcefully toward its new iteration.”
