Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesOver the last few years, several unconfirmed internet rumors about sexual misconduct have surrounded Louis C.K., but he continues to deny their veracity.
In case you're unaware, in 2015, Gawker got a tip from a source who said the comedian had sexually assaulted several women by forcing them to watch him masturbate in front of them. In 2016, Roseann Barr continued the conversation when she said she'd heard "so many stories" about him doing that to women.
Despite the claims, C.K. shrugged them off and responded to them by simply saying they're "not real" and therefore "nothing to him."
Fast forward to just a couple weeks ago, and those rumors gained steam once again when comedienne Tig Notaro—whose show One Mississippi lists C.K. as an executive producer—told The Daily Beast she hasn't spoken to the comic since "an incident" occurred before the show even began.
"I think it's important to take care of [those claims], to handle that, because it's serious to be assaulted," Notaro said of C.K. "It's serious to be harassed. It's serious, it's serious, it's serious."
When The New York Times addressed the allegations with C.K. at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend, he brushed the off once again.
"I'm not going to answer to that stuff, because they're rumors," he said. "If you actually participate in a rumor, you make it bigger and you make it real."
When asked if the rumors were real, C.K. promised, "No," adding, "They're rumors, that's all that is."
Of course, this begs the question: Why would Notaro make her recent comments?
C.K. answered, "I don't know why she said the things she's said, I really don't. I don't think talking about that stuff in the press and having conversations over press lanes is a good idea."
Interestingly enough, the film C.K. is promoting at TIFF—I Love You, Daddy—addresses rumormongering in Hollywood.
The film stars C.K. as the father of a 17-year-old actress (played by Chloë Grace Moretz) who's succumbed to the seduction of a 68-year-old esteemed filmmaker and rumored pedophile (played by John Malkovich).
"There are these people in the world that we all talk about, and we want to know that they're all good or they're all bad," C.K. described the film to the Times. "The uncomfortable truth is, you never really know. You don't know anybody. To me, if there was one thing this movie is about, it's that you don't know anybody."