Chloe Fineman, one of the top cast members for Saturday Night Live, sparked backlash this week when she admitted in an interview to having once pantsed a six-year-old boy when working as a camp counsellor.
Fineman mentioned an incident during an interview with Vanity Fair where she and her costars discussed past stories about jobs they were fired from. According to Fineman, while serving as a camp counselor at age 16, she pantsed a young boy who had been a bit handsy with her on some occasions.
“I was fired as a camp counselor,” she said.
After costar Mikey Day suggested that she was fired for “hitting on the campers,” Fineman responded, “No, I pantsed a boy.”
Her costars expressed shock as Fineman persisted in recalling her tale.
“Because he would lift my shirt all the time,” she continued. “It was a different time. He’d be like, ‘Hey, could I have a hug?’ And then I’d go to hug him and he’d lift my shirt like a dick. And then I was like, ‘I’m gonna get back at you.’”
“So we were on a hike, and I was like, ‘Hey [name], go look over there, it’s a hawk,’” she continued. “And then I yanked his pants down, and then I was fired.”
The clip in which Fineman mentioned that the boy was “like 6” at the time of the pantsing was removed from the cut of the interview, per People.
Social media users were highly critical of Fineman for admitting to the story, accusing her of sexual assault.
One of the most sickening things is the degree to which Vanity Fair just has absolutely no ethics whatsoever and clearly happily edited it and tried to suppress the truth at SNL’s request,” said one user. “The line between media and celebrities is a dotted line with no ethics involved.”
“What would possess someone to think this is a cute or funny story to tell. You sexually assaulted a literal child,” said another user.
“Anytime you gotta say, ‘it was a different time’ maybe stop,” said another.
