Ed Westwick has been dropped from the BBC’s Agatha Christie drama Ordeal By Innocence, which had already been shot and was originally due to air over Christmas.
The actor, who has three separate allegations of sexual assault against him, is being replaced by Christian Cooke (The Promise, Cemetary Junction), with his scenes to be reshot later this month.
The news was announced on Friday by co-producers Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited, adding that a new transmission date would be announced in due course.
Ordeal By Innocence also stars Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, Matthew Goode, Eleanor Tomlinson, Anthony Boyle, Luke Treadaway, Morven Christie, Crystal Clarke, Ella Purnell and Alice Eve, who will join Cooke on location in Scotland.
In late 207, three women came forward and accused Westwick, who rose to fame in Gossip Girl, of assault, two claiming that he raped them. The LAPD was reportedly investigating one of the rape allegations made by actress Kristina Cohen, who claimed that she was attacked in Westwick’s Hollywood Hill’s home three years earlier.
Westwick denied the rape allegations and said, “I do not know this woman. I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape,” he said of Cohen’s claim in an Instagram post. The denial of these allegations were the last posts made by the actor on his account.
Ordeal by Innocence is the second project to undergo last-minute reshoots in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal emerging from Hollywood. Ridley Scott reshot awards season favourite All The Money in the World with Christopher Plummer replacing the disgraced Kevin Spacey after multiple sexual assault claims were levelled at the star.
