A video allegedly shows Catfish host Nev Schulman shoving a girl at a bar. The controversial footage reappeared amid sexual misconduct allegations made against Schulman by a former guest on who appeared on the popular MTV reality series.
The clip reemerged via Twitter Thursday after a user, who goes by Denika Pérez, tweeted about the alleged incident at Suerte Bar & Grill in McAllen, Texas. It appears to show the 33-year-old television personality pushing a girl into a wall before walking off. Schulman's fellow Catfish colleague Max Joseph also appears to be present, standing back with another man to seemingly check on the girl. It hasn't been confirmed that the video shows Schulman and Joseph.
There isn't a confirmed date for when the shove happened either, but the MTV show did head to McAllen to film for an episode that aired during Season 7 in January.
MTV announced their intentions to suspend the production of Schulman's series on Thursday to investigate sexual misconduct allegations made by Ayissha Morgan via YouTube May 12. Morgan, 20, is a YouTube personality that appeared on Catfish during Season 4 in 2015. In her video, she referred to "the main guy on the show" as "Jack."
"I'm not against compliments. I'm not a prude, like compliment me up the ass if you want. That didn't bother me," Morgan said on YouTube. "It was the excessiveness that bothered me. On every break from filming, every time they said 'cut,' you're like 'Oh, well, when can I take you on a date?' Mind you, this is 20 minutes into us meeting for the very first time."
Prior to these videos, Schulman was additionally accused of engaging in domestic violence—an act he stood firmly against on Twitter after footage surfaced of former Ravens player Ray Rice assaulting his fiancée in an elevator in 2014. In his 2014 book In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age, Schulman admitted to being expelled from alma mater Sarah Lawrence for repeatedly punching a girl in the face at a dance. However, he claimed to have had no recollection of the incident.
"Schulman's account of the events of that night is as suspect as all his other endeavors," the unidentified woman, who was allegedly attacked by Schulman, told Vulture in 2014. "I attended the dance he mentions and saw that he was taking pictures of queer couples dancing and kissing without their permission...I confronted him and asked him to stop taking pictures. I didn't tackle him and I certainly didn't choke him with his camera strap."
The woman further suggested that she simply "tapped his shoulder," which caused him to allegedly strike her in the face and hold her in a headlock. Shortly after the woman's account came to light, a petition was published on Change.org, urging for MTV to dump Schulman. Petition creator Philip Greenwood labeled the host a "violent women beater."
Representatives for Schulman declined to comment to Newsweek. MTV and Suerte Bar & Grill did not immediately return Newsweek's request.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Dory Jackson is a New York-based entertainment journalist from Maryland. She graduated from Randolph-Macon College—in May 2016—with a focus in Communication ... Read more
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