Desmond goes motorboatin'

In a strange story to come out over the weekend, Henry Ian Cusick, who plays Desmond on Lost, has been named as a defendant in a sexual battery and harassment claim.

It's odd in that the purported incident happened almost two years ago, in October of 2007.

Cusick is married with three kids, and if true, the story could have some significant impact on the show:

• Des is the central romantic figure on the show, and his star crossed relationship with Penny (talk about motorboatin'!) is at the crux of the show's mythology. This kind of squicky off camera behavior could color how we view that relationship, and the character. (Though Rob Lowe just went through a similar lawsuit, and it doesn't appear to have hurt his career or relationship with ABC. And Alec Baldwin leaves lovely messages for his kid, and still makes us laugh our asses off on 30 Rock, so who knows?)
  
• The producers have shown little tolerance for actor shenanigans (cough*Libby*cough*Anna Lucia*cough). Could they get rid of Desmond, when the season finale has already been filmed and plotlines set in motion for the final season? Or, putting on the conspiracy theorist hat, could Darlton have already known this was coming, and adjusted the plot to take into account, gasp, the fact that Des might not be long for this world?
• Whether he stays or goes, there's no doubt Des is supposed to play a central role in how things develop, given the fact that he is Daniel's "constant," and, according to Dan, a wild card in all the time travel and future shaping events.

Interesting, and potentially disturbing, news indeed.

If I was him, I'd just go back in time and make sure there was no ass grabbin' in the production trailer.

Surely Dan wrote that down in his notebook. ("talk to Chang about rabbits.....what's with Charlotte's nosebleeds?.....Jughead is a bomb, oh shit....always keep tie on.......make sure Widmore pays bills for coma girl....hire nurse for future....whatever happened, happened, but maybe not......what year was Charlotte born? I can never keep that straight.....young Eloise is hot, but she's my mom. That's kinda weird. Would would McFly do?.....black jumpsuits are slimming....tell Naomi to "watch her back"......Desmond Hume is my constant......talk to him about that motorboating thing.....)