How One Upcoming Movie Will Work Around Timothy Busfield In The Wake Of His Allegations

As allegations continue to mount against Timothy Busfield, best known for his roles in TV shows like The West Wing and Thirtysomething, as well as one of the best sports films of all time, Field of Dreams, one upcoming movie will work around his planned role.

Per Deadline’s reporting, Busfield was set to play a role in an upcoming Amazon MGM Studios rom-com, You Deserve Each Other. Much as NBC did with an episode of Law & Order: SVU, the studio has decided to remove the actor and director. A source confirmed to the outlet that The Revenge of the Nerds veteran has been edited out of the 2026 movie release in the wake of sex abuse charges filed against the actor.

The development follows charges filed against the West Wing actor last week, when he was accused of two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor, along with child abuse. The allegations involve two underage boys and are tied to incidents that allegedly took place on the New Mexico set of the Fox/Warner Bros. series The Cleaning Lady, where the embroiled actor directed multiple episodes during the show’s four-season run from 2022 through 2025.

The 68-year-old actor/director could face up to ten years in state prison if convicted. He surrendered to Albuquerque police on January 13, five days after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He made a brief court appearance the following day and is currently being held without bond at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center. In the aftermath, his longtime representation at Innovative Artists has ended.

Busfield has not formally entered a plea and continues to deny the allegations. A hearing on a pre-trial detention motion is set for Tuesday.

Separately, You Deserve Each Other is a book-to-screen adaptation from Sarah Hogle’s 2020 bestselling novel, starring Meghann Fahy and Penn Badgley as a seemingly perfect engaged couple who are secretly desperate to call it quits. The problem is that whoever ends the engagement gets stuck paying for the wedding. What follows is a series of escalating pranks and power plays as each tries to push the other to fold first, only to discover that the chaos is rekindling something neither of them saw coming.

Busfield was revealed as part of the supporting cast in July, alongside Natalie Morales, Justin Long, Kyle MacLachlan, Ana Gasteyer, Hope Davis, Delaney Rowe, Lisa Gilroy, and Alyssa Limperis. The film is directed by Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn, who also reworked the script after an initial adaptation by Brett Haley and Marc Basch. According to reporting, production has already wrapped, meaning Busfield's scenes as Bernie, the father of Fahy’s character Naomi, were completed during filming. A release date has not yet been announced, but it is expected to be available streaming for anyone with a Amazon Prime Video subscription.

Timothy Busfield’s screen career dates back to 1981, when he made his film debut in a small, uncredited role in Ivan Reitman’s comedy Stripes. More recently, he appeared as an immigration officer in the Season 4 premiere of The Cleaning Lady last year, marking his first on-screen role since a 2023 episode of Billions. As a television director, his resume includes shows like FBI, Chicago Med, FBI: Most Wanted, and Law & Order.

As of this writing, Amazon MGM has not commented on the situation.