Actress Allison Williams, who headlined the glorious train wreck that was NBC’s Peter Pan Live!, is still clapping for her father.
On Wednesday night, the Girls star appeared in a talk with NBC late-night talk show host Seth Meyers at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan when the subject of her censured father, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, came up. While no member of the Williams family has spoken publicly about the firestorm of controversy surrounding him, Williams decided to break the silence, reported CNN. She called the chaos of late “tough, obviously toughest on my dad,” before declaring, “I know you can trust him.”
Meyers, who moderated the talk, teed up the answer by saying that he understood the Williams family must be going through a “difficult time.”
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“One thing this experience has not done is shake my trust and belief in him as a man,” Allison said about her father. “He’s a really good man. He’s an honest man. He’s a truthful man. He has so much integrity. He cares so much about journalism. And yes, he’s a really good dad, but I know you can trust him because, as any good daughter does, I have tested him on that.”
Brian Williams, of course, has been suspended for six months without pay from his anchor duties at NBC Nightly News for repeatedly fabricating a story about his chopper being hit by an RPG while he was covering the Iraq War—a lie that was exposed by the military-focused periodical Stars and Stripes. In the wake of this revelation, other claims Williams has made in various mediums have come into question.
“While on Nightly News on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003,” read an NBC Nightly News statement announcing his suspension. “It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position.”
During the 92Y talk, the 26-year-old Yale graduate also discussed what she went through when her father traveled to Iraq on that 2003 trip to cover the war for NBC. Williams was only in ninth grade, so it was a trying time for her and the rest of the Williams family.
“There was a father-daughter dance at the end of that year,” she recalled. “Before he left, he was assuming he’d be back in time for the dance. And then, as the date was coming, it didn’t seem like he was going to make it. But he had promised, and so a couple of days before I was so upset. And I got a surprise call from Iraq from my dad and he was asking if I had a date to the dance.”
“So that’s the kind of man he is,” Williams said, “and I can’t wait until he’s back on TV. And I know that many of you guys feel that way.”
Just two months prior to being exposed, Williams had signed a lucrative five-year contract with NBC at a reported $10 million a year. But now his future is in doubt, and he’s been replaced on NBC Nightly News in the interim by veteran anchor Lester Holt. This all comes amid reports that NBC News is none too happy with the Williams situation, and is “hanging him out to dry.”
