Peloton has taken down its viral parody video of the Sex and the City sequel after two women came forward with sexual assault allegations against Chris Noth, the actor who portrays the character Mr. Big and appeared in the company’s video. Noth has denied the allegations and said the sexual encounters were consensual.
Peloton removed its “He’s Alive” video from its social media accounts and YouTube channel on the same day the Hollywood Reporter published a horrifying report about two women who claim they were raped by Noth in 2004 and 2015. The women, whose identities were not revealed, told the outlet that promotions of And Just Like That and media articles about the show had brought back “painful memories” of the purported incidents with Noth.
“[S]eeing that he was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me,” one of the women accusing Noth told the outlet. “For so many years, I buried it.”
Gizmodo reached out to Peloton for comment on Thursday but did not receive a response by the time of publication. We’ll make sure to update this article if we hear back.
A Peloton spokesperson told the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday that it was not aware of the sexual assault allegations against Noth when it featured him in the parody video. Actor Ryan Reynolds, whose marketing company, Maximum Effort, produced the video, also removed it from his Twitter account.
The company is working on obtaining more information.
“Every single sexual assault accusation must be taken seriously,” the spokesperson said. “We were unaware of these allegations when we featured Chris Noth in our response to HBO’s reboot. As we seek to learn more, we have stopped promoting this video and archived related social posts.”
Noth told the Hollywood Reporter the allegations against him were “categorically false.”
“The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,” he said. “These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”
Although Noth questioned the “timing” of the purported assaults, it should be noted that the two women came forward with their allegations separately, at different times (in August and October), and do not know each other, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Peloton debuted the “He’s Alive” parody video on Sunday as a lightning-fast response to the premiere of the first two episodes of And Just Like That, the HBO Max sequel show to Sex and the City, which dropped a bomb on fans when Mr. Big died after an intense workout on a Peloton. The company’s stock dropped 11% after the episodes as the Peloton scrambled to control the damage to its image.
First, the company issued a statement from a cardiologist on its health and wellness council affirming that Mr. Big’s death was due to his “extravagant lifestyle,” adding that riding a Peloton possibly helped “delay his cardiac event.”
Apparently feeling that wasn’t enough, Peloton released the parody video “He’s alive.” The video features an alternate ending to Mr. Big’s story in And Just Like That. In this ending, Noth has seemingly left Carrie Bradshaw to be with his (real-life) Peloton instructor and do more Peloton workouts. I originally found the video, which received heavy media coverage, to be hilarious and a good response from Peloton. However, in light of these allegations, it now makes me uncomfortable, although I am reserving final judgement until we know more.
Overall, Peloton’s attempt to reclaim the narrative after the premiere of And Just Like That has ended up in disaster, though to be fair it was by no fault of its own. When you add that to the other woes on its list in 2021, which included a product recall, a lacklustre financial performance in the recent quarter, and people going back to the gym, the new year probably can’t get here soon enough for the company.
Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.