Fire Over At The Old AICN Place

Rumors are abound that one of the internet’s oldest movie websites, AintItCool, is possibly in some sort of trouble.  I checked it today (for the first time in a long time) and noticed that its always vibrant Talkback sections were largely absent.

It turns out that Harry Knowles allegedly touched a woman’s ass, 20 years ago, and some sort of furor is developing over it, where Knowles nuked most of the comments from orbit.  On one of the remaining areas of the site permitting discussion, they seem to be of the opinion here that the site will imminently close.

According to IndieWire:

In 1999-2000, Baker was familiar with Knowles and his website, as they often attended the same Drafthouse events. Baker was at a Drafthouse event when Knowles rubbed up against her buttocks and legs in a way that made her feel uncomfortable.

This has supposedly led to Knowles pulling out of ‘FantasticFest’, or something, although denying the ‘assault’.

I don’t know if that site will go.  Years ago, I would’ve said no way, it’ll just come under new management.  But supposedly it has had a big decline in popularity and another potential block for that — Knowles may not want it being inherited by anyone.

Of course though… this isn’t the first time this sort of rumor has appeared.  I’ve been reading that site for a long, long time.  I remember one rumor way back in 2002 that it was also ‘shutting down’…