Disgraced movie critic and entertainment blogger Devin Faraci has returned to public life following a supposedly 10-month long hiatus.
In 2016, the vocal progressive and male feminist stepped down from his position as editor-in-chief of the Alamo Drafthouse-owned publication Birth.Movies.Death following allegations of sexual assault and multiple instances of sexual harassment.
His return is being widely condemned, and people close to the situation claim that Faraci may not have actually left the company at all.
Loud and often vitriolic on social media, the male feminist blogger shared his views on such matters as Donald Trump’s “grab her by the pussy” comments to Billy Bush. Faraci tweeted that he was “terrified” of Trump, and described Mike Pence as an “ideological monster” in a series of tweets that went viral.
One of Faraci’s most popular articles was a complaint about geek culture, in which he decried its problem with “entitlement.” He was an often-vocal detractor of the GamerGate movement for ethics in gaming journalism, describing it as a movement of misogynists and zealots.
“I have more respect for ISIS than the anti-[Zoe] Quinn people,” he wrote.
Following his statements denouncing Trump and Pence, a woman posting under the name @spacecrone called him out for his hypocrisy and accused him of having sexually assaulted her in the past. She tweeted:
“@DevinCF quick question: do you remember grabbing me by the pussy and bragging to your friends about it, telling them to smell your fingers?
Sitting here trying to remember if a man had ever grabbed me by the vagina against my will and, well, yes, a popular Twitter feminist!
Literally stuck his hands down my pants at a bar while I told him to stop, then told our friends he had ‘fingerbanged me’ I’ve avoided making that public for over a decade but I guess my rage at trump has uncasked the Gorgon in me.
It’s not just your Trumps or your Republicans, it’s your friendly neighborhood film critics and twitter feminists. I don’t really care if he apologizes, mostly tweeting in solidarity with every person who has ever been grabbed by the pussy […] Or otherwise violated and then had to see that person posture as a feminist on social media or anywhere.”
Faraci didn’t deny her allegations, begging instead for her forgiveness.
Speaking to @spacecrone, Variety reported that she had spoken to Alamo Drafthouse founder and CEO Tim League about the allegations and described him as “empathetic.”
League announced Tuesday that Faraci has “entered recovery” and has been “sober” since the sexual assault allegations surfaced, and is now being welcomed back to the theater chain Alamo Drafthouse. In the letter, League claims that Faraci did not write for Birth.Movies.Death after being ordered to step down from his position.
However, multiple people close to the situation state that there was no break between Faraci’s departure from Birth.Movies.Death and his employment at Drafthouse.
A former Alamo Drafthouse staffer told The Hollywood Reporter that he found League’s statement to be “disingenuous” because “there was never any question of whether Devin would be given that opportunity. It wasn’t offered after a period of growth and change. Devin just very rapidly moved into his current copywriting/editing job after stepping down from Birth.Movies.Death.”
He added that Faraci was being CC’d in internal emails a month after he left the website. The former staffer told the website that League released an internal email similar to the one he put out Tuesday many months ago to address concerns and outrage.
“I don’t feel that a single month or less is long enough to properly reflect on, atone for and change such long standing behaviors,” the ex-staffer said.
THR also highlighted correspondence between a Vancouver-based writer named Kat Arnett, and Tim League, over allegations that Faraci sexually harassed her. She had reached out to the Alamo Drafthouse CEO shortly after the sexual assault allegations were made.
Posting screenshots of their email conversation, League asked her to keep her story private. “I’d appreciate it if you kept this dialogue between us,” he allegedly wrote. “We’re now trying to move forward with the BMD brand, but I did want to get back to your personally. Cheers.”
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.