“Honest Trailers” creator Andy Signore filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles court Tuesday against Defy Media for revoking his ownership interest in the company, TheWrap has learned.
In the complaint, Signore, who was fired in October following sexual misconduct accusations by several women, disputes the accusations and and said he had a consensual relationship with one of the women.
“While other women did come forward alleging private flirtatious conversations they had with Signore, no other allegations of criminal misconduct were made by anyone,” Signore’s statement said.
The complaint also says that Defy Media used the accusations to strip Signore of his ownership rights and avoided paying Signore, while defaming his character publicly.
“The past year has been extremely difficult after being falsely accused of sexual assault,” Signore said in a statement Wednesday. “As a result, I had my ownership in the company taken away, lost my family and my reputation. I have never threatened, abused, assaulted or forced myself on anyone. I did however engage in infidelities that I regret tremendously. My ex-wife and my family are the true victims here and I am deeply sorry to them.”
“These claims are not grounded in facts and will be found to be baseless,” a Defy representative told TheWrap on Wednesday.
Signore was ousted by Defy in October following sexual misconduct claims from several women, according to his former employers at both Defy Media and Screen Junkies.
One of the women who stepped forward, April O’Donnell, told TheWrap at the time that Signore tried to sexually assault her repeatedly and threatened to get her boyfriend fired from his job at Screen Junkies if she spoke out. She said she and two other women went to the Screen Junkies human resources department in July to file formal complaints.
“I believe Mr. Signore has a strong case against Defy,” Yana Henriks, a partner at law firm McMurray Henriks,, which represents Signore, said in a statement. “The tortious and reckless behavior Defy demonstrated by exploiting the opportunity to use false and egregious claims against Andy to misappropriate products of his long hard work of many years is utterly appalling. No person’s ownership interest should be taken away based on social media postings and anyone who does that should be responsible in a court of law.”
One of his former interns, Emma Bowers, said that when she worked for Signore, he came across pin-up photos she had done in the past and wrote to her about “jacking it to you in your undies!” Signore then allegedly asked Bowers to come over so he could do that in person.
Another woman, Devin Murphy, tweeted direct messages and an email “he sent to me that scares me.” In the messages, he repeatedly urges her to dress up in a costume, according to Murphy.
The Emmy-nominated “Honest Trailers” is a short-form variety series that satirizes film, and occasionally television, trailers. It launched in 2012 and its YouTube page has amassed more than 157 million views. Screen Junkies, the channel that hosts “Honest Trailers,” has more than 6.2 million subscribers.