Harvey Weinstein: 'Beautiful Girls' Scribe Scott Rosenberg

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Dylan Farrow writes that Woody Allen abused her
by Jayme Deerwester
USA TODAY
8:24 p.m. ET Feb. 1, 2014 | Updated 8:47 a.m. ET Feb. 2, 2014

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Adopted daughter of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow pens an open letter claiming she was molested by the director.

Dylan Farrow, the adopted daughter of actress Mia Farrow and her then-partner, filmmaker Woody Allen, has written an open letter published by the New York Times website detailing a 1992 incident in which she says Allen molested her.

Though the case made headlines back in 1993 and her mother and brother Ronan have discussed the case before, this is the first time Dylan has spoken publicly on the subject.

Dylan, now 28, was adopted by Farrow and Allen in 1987 when she was 2. Five years later, she writes that Allen led her by the hand to a room in their house where "he told me to lie on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."

She goes on to say that "he talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we'd go to Paris and I'd be a star in his movies."

What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.

For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.

When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child.

After a custody hearing denied my father visitation rights, my mother declined to pursue criminal charges, despite findings of probable cause by the State of Connecticut – due to, in the words of the prosecutor, the fragility of the “child victim.” Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up. I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, “who can say what happened,” to pretend that nothing was wrong. Actors praised him at awards shows. Networks put him on TV. Critics put him in magazines. Each time I saw my abuser’s face – on a poster, on a t-shirt, on television – I could only hide my panic until I found a place to be alone and fall apart.

Last week, Woody Allen was nominated for his latest Oscar. But this time, I refuse to fall apart. For so long, Woody Allen’s acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away. But the survivors of sexual abuse who have reached out to me – to support me and to share their fears of coming forward, of being called a liar, of being told their memories aren’t their memories – have given me a reason to not be silent, if only so others know that they don’t have to be silent either.

Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home.

But others are still scared, vulnerable, and struggling for the courage to tell the truth. The message that Hollywood sends matters for them.

What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?

Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.

So imagine your seven-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen. Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormenter.

Are you imagining that? Now, what’s your favorite Woody Allen movie?

-- An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow, by Dylan Farrow

The incident in the attic was not the first time Allen touched her, she said, though she does not give a time frame for how long the alleged abuse went on. She only goes as far as saying that, "for as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I did not like. ... These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn't keep the secret anymore."

At that point, she told Farrow, who left Allen that same year after the news broke of his relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the 19-year-old daughter she had adopted with husband Andre Previn. (Allen and Soon-Yi married in 1997 and have two adopted daughters, Bechet and Menzie.)

A custody battle over their adopted children ensued and Allen's attorneys alleged that her mother encouraged her to make up the abuse allegations.

In September 1993, Connecticut state attorney Frank Maco declined to prosecute Allen, saying that while he had probable cause, he did not wish to inflict any further anguish on Dylan by making her testify. Farrow won custody of their adopted children and Allen was denied visitation rights.

"That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up," Dylan writes. "I was stricken with guilt that I had allowed him to be near other little girls. I was terrified of being touched by men. I developed an eating disorder. I began cutting myself. That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, 'who can say what happened,' to pretend that nothing was wrong. ... For so long, Woody Allen's acceptance silenced me. It felt like a personal rebuke, like the awards and accolades were a way to tell me to shut up and go away."

But this award season, Dylan says she felt differently. "This time, I refuse to fall apart. ... Today, I consider myself lucky. I am happily married. I have the support of my amazing brothers and sisters. I have a mother who found within herself a well of fortitude that saved us from the chaos a predator brought into our home."

Why is all of this coming back up now? The Farrow family's feelings toward Allen have been stirred up by the award season attention being paid to him, including the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at January's Golden Globes and his Oscar nomination for best original screenplay for Blue Jasmine.

"Imagine your 7-year-old daughter being led into an attic by Woody Allen," she commands the reader. "Imagine she spends a lifetime stricken with nausea at the mention of his name. Imagine a world that celebrates her tormentor."

She drives her point home by calling out the stars of his films. "What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis C.K.? Alec Baldwin? What if it had been you, Emma Stone? Or you, Scarlett Johansson? You knew me when I was a little girl, Diane Keaton. Have you forgotten me?"

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'I will never forgive Polanski. I'm telling the truth and Roman knows it': Actress Charlotte Lewis claims she was abused by director when she was 16
by Katie Nicholl and Laura Collins
UPDATED: 04:52 EST, 27 January 2017

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Charlotte, as she is today, escaped Hollywood and now leads a 'normal life' bringing up her son in London

It has been a long time since Charlotte Lewis held a crowd enthralled in Hollywood.

But if she ever dreamed of a return to Los Angeles, where as a young actress she was hailed as a ‘golden child’ – talented, exquisitely beautiful and with a film career unfurling before her – it would never have been like this.

On Friday, Charlotte, now 42, called a Press conference in Los Angeles to claim that director Roman Polanski, the man who gave her her first break, had abused her, ‘in the worst possible way’ when she was just 16 years old.

Polanski is currently under house arrest in Gstaad in Switzerland under threat of extradition to America to face charges of an alleged rape of a 13-year-old in 1977.

His alleged victim, Samantha Geimer, has said she has no desire to see him stand trial as she simply wants to get on with the life she subsequently built.

But 27 years after their first meeting, Charlotte feels very differently. She wants him to ‘get what he deserves’, she says and has given a statement to prosecutors in Los Angeles.

Now, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Charlotte explains why she has chosen to speak up now – against not just Polanski, but against Hollywood itself.

She says: ‘I know I should have gone to the relevant authorities at the time but I was scared and ashamed. I somehow thought it was my fault.

‘I’ve been so angry with some of the people in Hollywood who have spoken out in support of Polanski. Hollywood is giving the wrong message to paedophiles.

'He sexually abused me and manipulated me in the worst way. He has scarred me and the experience has definitely put a strain on my life.

‘I was recently engaged to a lovely man, but I would often clam up physically and I don’t think I’m very good in relationships. I will never forgive Polanski for what he has done to me.’

Charlotte had only just turned 16 when she first encountered Polanski. She had left school at 15 and by her own admission thought she was ‘pretty grown-up and street smart’ at the time. Looking back, she recognises that, though she may have been precocious and ambitious, she was anything but.

She had no acting experience but knew that she wanted her future to lie in film.

She modelled a bit while she searched for her big chance and, in 1983, she got it when a mutual acquaintance, 23-year-old model Eliza Karen, asked her to come with her to Paris to audition for a role in Polanski’s film Pirates.

Polanski had fled to the French capital five years earlier to escape the American courts over the Geimer case.

Charlotte recalls: ‘We had come over to Paris on the boat with not much money so that I could meet Roman. I was with Eliza, a friend of his. She was also a model and a couple of years older than me.


Vulnerable: Charlotte and Polanski launch the Pirates film at the 1986 Cannes film festival

‘She had put me up for a part in Roman’s new film. Apparently he wanted someone exotic-looking and because of my Hispanic look he wanted to see me. I didn’t know at the time, but I later found out that they had already found a French actress to play the role so I don’t know why he still wanted to see me.

‘We had checked into a hotel which was pretty central and very reasonable but when we told Roman where we were staying he said the hotel was not good enough and invited us to stay in his spare penthouse on the Avenue Montaigne, which seemed like a great offer.’

That night the girls went straight to Roman’s house for pre-dinner drinks. The first thing Polanski did on seeing Charlotte was to frame her face with his hands, as if shooting her through a camera. She felt uncomfortable, she now admits, but given the purpose of their meeting this in itself could hardly be described as odd.

She says: ‘The very first thing he asked me was, “How old are you?”I told him I was 16, but only just. This was in September and I had turned 16 that August.’

After dinner Polanski checked the girls out of the hotel room that he had dismissed as substandard and took them back to his apartment. While her friend retired to a neighbouring flat, Charlotte stayed chatting with the director on the sofa in his living room.


Fugitive: Roman Polanski, now 76, is facing extradition to America

‘We were drinking Moet and Chandon, I’ll never forget that, and I still can’t drink that champagne to this day. He told me he wanted me to stay the night with him and then he made a pass at me. He tried to kiss me and touch my breasts. I pulled away and told him that I had a boyfriend, which wasn’t true. It was an excuse, but he didn’t care.

‘He just said very coldly, “If you’re not a big enough girl to have sex with me, you’re not big enough to do the screen-test. I must sleep with every actress that I work with, that’s how I get to know them, how I mould them.”

‘I was shocked and got very upset and started to cry. I said I didn’t want to sleep with him, he was 50 and I found him disgusting.’

But as she recalls this today, Charlotte admits that she felt conflicted. ‘I saw this opportunity slipping away,’ she says softly.

‘My mother who had been working as a legal secretary had just been made redundant and although I was doing a lot of modelling I didn’t have a lot of money. I saw this film as my chance to make it. All these things were going through my head and I was getting more and more upset. I told him I didn’t want to sleep with him and I left.

‘I went to the other flat to see my friend and tell her what had happened.’

Charlotte says that, in her naivety and confusion, she became concerned that she was letting a professional opportunity of a lifetime pass her by, so returned to the director’s apartment.

‘Roman opened the door and led me to the bedroom,’ she recalls.

She has described exactly what she alleges happened next to the Los Angeles’ prosecutors, who are expected to investigate.

Charlotte says that the following morning, Polanski invited her and Eliza to join him for breakfast in his living room, and she accepted. She says now: ‘All I remember was wanting a bath. I needed to clean myself and I went to get fresh clothes.

‘After breakfast he wanted to show us the Mona Lisa so he took us to the Louvre and some other museums in the centre. We had lunch, then I went back with him to his apartment to collect my things as I was flying back to London that afternoon. I don’t know where Eliza was, I can’t remember.’

She claims that a further incident took place before she left for home.

Some might find it difficult to square her allegations of an ordeal that she claims was terrifying with her decision to return to Paris two weeks later for the Pirates screen test. But she did return and she got the part that would launch her career.

‘I never told my mother what had happened,’ she said. ‘I was just too ashamed. I needed to do this movie, the money was good – I was being paid £1,200 a month. My mother and I were living in housing association accommodation and this was a life-changing amount of money.’


Speaking out: Actress Charlotte Lewis, right, with her lawyer Gloria Allred at the Los Angeles press conference

Charlotte’s Irish mother raised her alone and the actress never knew the Iraqi-Chilean father to whom she owes her looks. Speaking in a promotional interview for the film in 1986, Polanski himself said of Charlotte: ‘She had what I needed for the film. Dark hair, dark eyes – and the look of innocence.’

Back then Charlotte spoke of the experience of filming as a ‘nightmare’.

‘Polanski tried to dominate me right from the start,’ she said. ‘He swore at me and shouted at me. There was such pressure on me that I became a nervous wreck.’

Today Charlotte recalls: ‘The mental abuse started as soon as I started filming. I always felt that as soon as I started the movie he wanted to fire me.

‘I developed a serious eating disorder. He would play mind games with me and tell me I was too fat and then too thin. I developed bulimia and lost so much weight I passed out five times during filming.

I had turned 17 and Roman had been told by the producer Tarak Ben Ammar and MGM to stay away from me. I was very alone. They wouldn’t allow me to have an agent. Roman continued to emotionally bully me and would joke to other people onset that I was frigid.


Scared: Charlotte says she is angry at the reaction of some people in Hollywood who support Polanski

‘I remember he made a bet once with a very famous American male actor that there was no way he could get me into bed because I was so cold and frigid. The producer flew my mother out to Tunisia [where Pirates was filmed] and I remember her hating Polanski. She said he had dead eyes.’

But though little has changed in how she remembers the miserable process of filming itself, her version of what happened between her and Polanski on a physical level has altered with the years.

In 1986 Charlotte claimed: ‘I found him very attractive, I’d love to have had a romantic relationship with him – and a physical one. You can’t help falling in love with him. But he didn’t want me that way.’

Though it is worth noting that at the time she was speaking she was still working for Polanski and, it could be argued, in thrall of him.

Today she says: ‘There was nothing about him I could have found physically attractive. He was short and stout and very strong.’

In another interview in 1999 Charlotte went on to claim that she did have a relationship with Polanski. But that it started after she had been cast in the film and when she was 17.

‘I wanted him probably more than he wanted me,’ she said then, claiming that they were lovers for six months in an affair that ended only when they began filming Pirates in Tunisia. She claimed afterwards that she’d been misquoted.

Ultimately this case must come down to one person’s word against another’s. Charlotte did not keep in touch with Eliza, the one person who could corroborate her account and, despite The Mail on Sunday’s strenuous attempts, we have been unable to trace her.

What is clear is that what Charlotte had hoped would be the start of a great Hollywood dream, instead set her on a path that led ultimately to addiction and despair.

Following her appearance in Pirates, Charlotte was hailed the new Nastassja Kinski – a former protege of Polanski who is said to have started an affair with him at the age of 15. Charlotte split her time between the UK – where she had a long-running role in Grange Hill – and Hollywood, where she starred opposite Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child in 1986.

She eventually moved to America and was swiftly linked with astring of eligible A-listers and hell-raisers, including Charlie Sheen and Mickey Rourke.

Professionally her star was on the rise but personally she was in serious trouble.‘Living in Los Angeles is like being at one long party,’ she later admitted. ‘It’s difficult to get away from it. I got to the stage where I was wondering, “What is the point of living here?” All I have is temptation.’

But she never lived up to her early film promise and in 1997, 14 years after she met Polanski, Charlotte returned to Britain and checked into the Priory to be treated for cocaine addiction. She had tried to give it up twice already, she said, but only ever in a ‘half-hearted’ way.

She tried to resurrect her career but whatever attraction Hollywood had held seemed to have gone.


Rising star: Charlotte starred alongside Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child in 1986

Eight years ago she quit acting for good and today she says: 'I am happy but it’s true to say I have never been able to have a normal relationship with a man. I have spoken to my vicar and my GP about this and I am now having counselling.’

Charlotte has many reasons for speaking out now but money is not one of them and she has not been paid for this interview.

Instead, she insists, her abiding desire is simply to tell the truth that she has concealed for so long.

Last summer she made two trips to Paris and tried to contact Polanski. She says: ‘I wanted to see him. I wanted him to apologise. But he was away making a movie.

‘I’d heard that Polanski’s daughter had turned 16 and if I could ask him one question it would be, “How would you feel if this was your daughter?”

‘I will never forgive Polanski,’ Charlotte says as tears threaten to fall. ‘I’ll never know if my life would have been different had this not happened. There needs to be some justice. I’m telling the truth and Roman knows I’m telling the truth.’

Mr Polanski declined to comment last night.

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Carol Drinkwater reveals sex attack by Hollywood director Elia Kazan
Rejecting the advances of a famous director cost the actor turned author the part of a lifetime. She explains why, 40 years on, she poured her shame and guilt into her latest novel, The Lost Girl
by Claire Armitstead
20 October 2017 07.11 EDT Last modified on Monday 23 October 2017 10.34 EDT

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YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Painful story … Carol Drinkwater in 2009. Photograph: David Levenson/Getty Images

When the stories about Harvey Weinstein’s abusive behaviour began to pour out of the Hollywood closet, they stirred up painful memories for actor turned novelist Carol Drinkwater – so painful it has taken her four decades to speak out about them.

In an emotional Facebook post last week she wrote about being “very badly damaged in my 20s by a director as famous as HW, more so. It took me years to get over it ... I lost a mighty role because I would not play along, would not sleep with the director in question.”

It was the first time Drinkwater had mentioned the assault in public, and she stopped short of naming her abuser – “even though he is dead, I still do not say his name”. But the clues are there in her latest novel, The Lost Girl, in which wannabe starlet Marguerite is raped by a famous director with a Greek-sounding surname.

The damage to Marguerite is devastating and permanent. Looking back in her old age, she remarks: “Today, if he behaved towards a budding young actress with such disrespect, she would bloody well take him to court.” But the Weinstein revelations have shown that Marguerite is wrong, believes Drinkwater: shame and secrecy are still rife in the film industry, and that is why she has finally decided the time has come to tell her full story.

She was not long out of drama school, with one minor film role to her name, as a nurse in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, when she was invited to take a screen test for a major Hollywood movie.


Elia Kazan. Photograph: Popperfoto

It was an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel The Last Tycoon, produced by Sam Spiegel, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. But most exciting of all was the prospect of working with one of her biggest heroes, the Greek-American director Elia Kazan. By then in his 60s, Kazan was a pioneer of method acting who had made stars of Marlon Brando and James Dean through classics such as A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront and East of Eden.

Drinkwater, the convent-educated daughter of Anglo-Irish parents, was also method-trained, as a graduate of north London’s Drama Centre. So confident were Spiegel and Pinter that she was a shoo-in for the part of Kathleen, the troubled Englishwoman with whom studio chief Monroe Stahr becomes obsessed, that they involved her for months in the development of the character.

A snuff film, or snuff movie, is "a movie in a purported genre of movies in which a person is actually murdered or commits suicide".

-- Snuff Film, by Wikipedia

A sex abuse film, or sex abuse movie, is "a movie in a purported genre of movies in which a person is actually sexually abused".

-- Sex Abuse Film, by Wikipedia

A rape film, or rape movie, is "a movie in a purported genre of movies in which a person is actually raped".

-- Rape Film, by Wikipedia

Her first encounter with Kazan was in Spiegel’s apartment, after which she was asked to go for a more formal meeting at his production office the following week. “I went on a Monday and was put in a private room. We started to do a little bit of the script and in no time he pushed me up against the wall. He pinned me there with his hands on either side of me, and pressed himself up against me hard, kissing my neck. I was completely freaked and didn’t know what was going on. My first thought was, is this method directing? It’s not Birmingham Rep. I tried to wriggle away from him and he said, ‘If you don’t show me passion, you can’t play this role’. We spent the morning with him pushing and pulling at me. He said, ‘OK, come in tomorrow’ and this went on for a week. Because I didn’t realise what was going on, I turned up like a good girl.”

It wasn't just that this man had humiliated me, it was that the whole thing was some kind of a set-up

The screen test itself was scheduled for the following week. “When I arrived, the studio was completely empty – a huge big black space.” She was waiting in the dressing room when there was a knock on the door. “He came in, threw me back on the sofa and started pulling at my clothes, forcibly trying to have sex with me.” She managed to shake him off by insisting she needed to concentrate on her lines, but went into the screen test “completely shaken”, only for the abuse to start again with the camera rolling. He whispered obscenities in her ear, she says, pushing her about in a way that couldn’t be seen by anyone else, however hard she tried to get their attention.

“I froze. I was like a wooden spoon. The cameraman must have been wondering where the hell they had found this girl because I could not act any more. At some point they said cut, finish. The lights went out and nobody said a word to me.” In the evening, Kazan phoned her at her flat and invited her to join him at the Connaught hotel. “I said, ‘I haven’t got the part, have I?’”

The next day Spiegel rang to console her about the screen test, which he said was the worst he had ever seen, and assured her he was going to destroy the film for the good of her career. Weeks later, he took her out to dinner and asked what had gone wrong. “I mentioned what had happened and I suppose he’d seen it more than a million times.” Almost most hurtful of all was Spiegel’s revelation that, before the screen test, Kazan had told him: “’She hasn’t got the sang-froid for Hollywood. I’ll prove it to you.’ It wasn’t just that this man had humiliated and abused me, it was that the whole thing was some kind of a set-up of Kazan’s own making.”

Though her own experience stopped short of rape, it chimed in important ways with the Weinstein revelations. Part of the purpose of her Facebook post was to defend Matt Damon for his assertion that he had had no inkling of the producer’s behaviour. “I think it is perfectly possible to not be aware of what is going on,” she wrote. “These moments happen behind closed doors.”

The Lost Girl distances the episode by moving it to the south of France and shifting it back three decades to the 1940s. We first meet Marguerite in Paris in 2015, where she is spending a lonely retirement in a second-floor apartment with only her dog for company. The intervening years might have given her the stardom she so badly wanted, but they have not enabled her to overcome her fear of intimacy.


TV career … Carol Drinkwater in the much-loved All Creatures Great and Small, with Peter Davison. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Drinkwater, too, has gone on to have a successful career, though she never did get to Hollywood. A couple of years after her casting-couch misadventure, she landed the role of James Herriot’s wife in the long-running TV serial All Creatures Great and Small, since when she has had numerous film and TV roles.

Her second career as a writer has produced a stream of popular fiction and nonfiction, beginning in 1985 with a children’s novel, The Haunted School, which was made into a film and an award-winning TV mini-series, with Drinkwater herself playing a young 19th-century schoolteacher struggling to set up a school in the Australian outback.

She and her TV producer husband Michel Noll now live in France, dividing their time between Paris and an olive farm in Provence, where The Lost Girl is partly set. Telling Marguerite’s story, she says, is one of the hardest things she has ever done: “I would weep and weep when I was writing it.” The only other challenge that has proved anywhere near as painful was writing about miscarrying a baby and discovering she was unable to carry a child to term, in the second of a series of memoirs, The Olive Season, published in 2003.

She is wary about being seen as jumping on the Weinstein bandwagon, and is visibly distressed as she recounts the events of 40 years ago, saying it took years to get over the “shame, pain, guilt about my body causing such a reaction in a man, about being described as ‘voluptuous’ as though I was responsible for it and used it in some way I did not understand. I believed I had failed, let myself down, ruined my career.”


Flop … Ingrid Boulting with Robert De Niro in The Last Tycoon, 1976. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

The former model Ingrid Boulting went on to land the part of Kathleen in The Last Tycoon opposite Robert De Niro, and the film was a flop. In his autobiography, published in the 1980s, Kazan recalled discussing it with Pinter nine years later. “I … told him that the problem with our film had been the love story – in other words, his script. He disagreed, absolutely; he said the film had only one flaw, Ingrid Boulting. That night, Sam agreed.”

For Drinkwater, the anecdote resurrected yet again the spectre of what happened and what might have been. Only now does she reluctantly feel ready to face her demons, “because it’s important that people realise this has been going on for a long time. This story goes very deep.”

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New York Times Film Critic Janet Maslin: James Toback Threatened to Kill Me
It was 1978 and the young critic had just reviewed James Toback’s directorial debut. Then came the phone calls: ‘I’m going to f**king kill you.’
by Kate Briquelet
11.01.17 9:00 PM ET

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The threatening calls came in the middle of the night at her apartment, and during the day at her office at The New York Times.

“I’m going to fucking kill you,” the male caller warned in his rants.

It was 1978, and Janet Maslin had just reviewed James Toback’s directorial debut, Fingers. She believed Toback was the man behind the death threats.

“He disguised his voice,” Maslin tells The Daily Beast. “It was a very menacing tone, and you know, I was scared. But at that point I had a listed phone number. He was the guy who made me unlisted.”

The renowned film critic believes Toback called her at least 10 times following her scathing summary of his film. The daytime dials were more comical, Maslin says, because she waved over fellow scribes to listen in.

Still, the threats prompted the Times to contact authorities. Maslin says it was the only time in her decades-long career that she filed a police report.

“The calls came in a badly disguised voice and said some version of, ‘I’m going to fucking kill you.’ I don’t remember them any better than that,” Maslin said. “They came to both the Times office in the daytime and my apartment in the middle of the night.”

Maslin had been at the paper for about a year. She asked her boss, Vincent Canby, to listen in on the calls so he could corroborate them. She believes Canby contacted the Times’ security, which referred them to police.

When officers took a report, Maslin learned that fellow critic John Simon received threats, too, after he panned Toback's film. Police played Simon’s answering machine messages to see if Maslin recognized the caller. “It was the same voice saying the same stuff,” she said. “That proves it wasn’t sexual. [He] was an equal opportunity threatener.”

Toback wasn’t charged in Maslin’s case. “I was frightened by late night calls but never doubted their source,” Maslin told The Daily Beast. “And in 1978 he wasn’t anyone I was afraid of. The whole thing was more than a little ridiculous.”

Toback called Maslin after her police report, and identifying himself using his normal voice, he invited her to the Harvard Club to clear the air.

Maslin says she was angry, curious, and wanted to show Toback she wasn’t afraid of him, so she accepted the invitation. “I was pretty mad, too,” she recalls. “My attitude was kind of, ‘OK, buster. Let’s have it out.’”

According to Maslin, Toback was pleasant over lunch, ordering oysters and Champagne. He claimed he would never make death threats. If he wanted to kill her, Toback allegedly said, he would have done so in the middle of the street.

oystersex
The part of the female genitalia that is comprised of the clit and the genital lips. When the lips have been parted, the lady's anatomy is quite like the appearance of an oyster.
Wow! Did you see the oyster on that chick in the movie? She had very large lips. And her oyster was very, very moist!
-- oystersex, by urban dictionary

His denials, Maslin says, were disingenuous, as he bragged that he’d be even more dangerous if the phone threats were true.

“This was really creepy, out-of-line behavior. There were filmmakers I know I made angry that nursed a grudge, but this kind of thing just didn’t happen,” she added. “Vincent and I were each there [at the Times] for decades and neither of us had to call the police, except in this case.”

Maslin came forward because her Toback story is different—and disturbing in its own way—from the accusations by droves of actresses who say the director sexually harassed them. The incident occurred much earlier in Toback’s career, and it stayed with Maslin for nearly 40 years.

She didn’t see Toback’s face again until the Los Angeles Times revealed that 38 women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. The number of accusers has since mushroomed to more than 300.

27 Oct
Mark Harris
@MarkHarrisNYC
Replying to @MarkHarrisNYC
For those interested in mathematical accuracy, this is what the Toback count looks like. pic.twitter.com/U63jqw3BAW

Janet Maslin
@JanetMaslin
1) Change of pace: he made anonymous death threats to me. By phone. Vincent Canby overheard him. Threats timed to review of "Fingers."
5:49 PM - Oct 27, 2017

27 Oct
Jason Zinoman
@zinoman
Replying to @JanetMaslin @MarkHarrisNYC
You both have thick critic’s skin, no doubt, but a little anonymous death threat goes a long way.

Janet Maslin
@JanetMaslin
Joking aside, Vincent and I were each at the NYT for decades. Toback was the only person who ever gave either of us occasion to notify NYPD.
6:07 PM - Oct 27, 2017

“I am surprised,” Maslin says of the allegations. “But he had the early seeds of some kind of a nuisance and stalker when I’d met with him. That’s why I told this story.”

Toback twice hung up on a Daily Beast reporter when reached for comment. “Oh, man. I’m not talking,” he said Wednesday.

Since the LA Times exposed the allegations against Toback, countless others are speaking out about their own encounters with the 72-year-old screenwriter.

Authorities in New York and Los Angeles are fielding calls about alleged incidents that stretch over three decades. On Tuesday, Beverly Hills police announced they opened investigations into Toback, as well as disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, over allegations of sexual assault.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Toback responded to the accusations with a profanity-laden rant. “The idea that I would offer a part to anyone for any other reason than that he or she was gonna be the best of anyone I could find is so disgusting to me,” Toback fumed. “And anyone who says it is a lying cocksucker or cunt or both. Can I be any clearer than that?”

Last week, one woman told The Daily Beast that Toback pinned her down in Central Park and stalked her in his vehicle as she ran away. Another said Toback humped her leg and ejaculated in his pants as they sat in Central Park.

Another accuser said Toback tried feeling her up as he ranted about his fantasy to commit a mass shooting, where he’d kill everyone on his “black list.” In the months afterward, Toback left slurred messages on her voicemail.

Some of the Toback stories circulating on social networks and in media interviews have taken a more sinister turn, with allegations of death threats.

Selma Blair told Vanity Fair that Toback threatened her during a meeting in a hotel room, where he pressed himself against her leg.

According to Blair, Toback warned her, “There is a girl who went against me. She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

Robyn Hussa Farrell’s story is eerily similar. During her own hotel lunch with Toback in 1993, she alleges that the director bragged of murdering someone.

At the time, Farrell was an actress and cocktail waitress at Hotel Del Coronado, a beachfront luxury resort in San Diego, when Toback ordered a drink. Toback tossed his business card onto her tray and said, “Hey, I’m Jim.”

Farrell, who recounted her disturbing meeting with the director in an autobiographical play, remembers her sassy reply: “So what else is new?”

“I’m writing a screenplay, and I think you’d be a terrific lead,” Toback replied, before she walked away to deliver more drinks.

The next day, Toback sent a fax to the hotel—addressed to Farrell—with a copy of his driver’s license and an image of the back of a Bugsy VHS tape to prove his Hollywood credentials. He invited her to lunch.

Farrell called Toback for more information. “From the moment I spoke to him on the phone, I said, ‘I know these stories. I’m not interested in the casting couch scenario,’” Farrell told The Daily Beast. Toback allegedly replied, “That’s not what this is about. This is about the screenplay. You’re perfect for it.”

She agreed to join him at the Chateau Marmont. He wanted to meet in his penthouse, but she was adamant they stick to the restaurant. Her roommate would be waiting outside the hotel at 4 p.m., ready to call police if she didn’t emerge.

Shortly after Farrell sat down, Toback allegedly declared, “My wife and I have an open marriage.”

“If the bar for the conversation starts at, ‘My wife forces me to have sex with other people in front of her,’ … you’re no longer in what any of us would consider a realm of normalcy,” Farrell said. “I’m in this crazy universe, and I don’t even know what what the rules are because this guy is so weird.”

She realized their rendezvous wasn’t about a starring role. “I kept calling him out on it. I said, ‘Obviously your agenda and my agenda don’t line up,’” Farrell says. Toback eventually relented and said, “Fine. I’ll tell you about the screenplay.”

Talk of the script, she says, evolved into Toback’s wild claims that the mafia paid him to throw games when he played basketball at Harvard. This new screenplay would be based off his collegiate experience, he told her. Toback said he wanted her to play a mafioso’s daughter in what would become Harvard Man.

At one point, Farrell claims, Toback’s monologue included boasts of stabbing someone to death. “He was bragging about murdering somebody. That alarmed me, and I didn’t quite know if it was in the context of reality,” she says.

Farrell again asked to see the script. “Robyn, that’s not how I work,” Toback retorted. He allegedly explained that he wrote his characters after getting to know the actors themselves—after seeing them naked.

According to Farrell, he rattled off a list of celebrities he’d worked with, including Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr., and claimed that they, too, followed his artistic process. He then convinced Farrell to come to his room to see examples of his work.

At Toback’s apartment, he handed her an article describing how he had sex with an actress on set in front of other performers. Then he gave her a Perrier water, and they sat down in the bedroom—the only room with a TV and VCR—to watch his documentary The Big Bang. She stealthily poured her water into a plant.

As they watched the film, Toback segued into the importance of seeing his actors naked. “He said The Big Bang was all about the orgasm of the cosmos creating the world,” Farrell recalls. “Then it led into him saying something like, ‘I can have an orgasm without touching you.’” She claims Toback instructed her to sit on the kitchen table, where he would demonstrate his dubious talent.

Toback then ordered her to rub his nipples and began humping her leg. “I was terrified,” she said. “You’re also just like, ‘I can’t believe it’s all happening.” Unsure of how to react, her defense mechanism was to be smart-alecky.

“Right after that happened and he was done with my knee… I was basically mocking him. I was like, ‘Really. That’s it?’” Farrell says.

That’s when Toback turned threatening, Farrell recalls. He allegedly warned her, “Do you know what it feels like when a knife enters the skin? Do you have any idea the layers of tissue you can feel the knife cutting through layer by layer?”

She remembers calmly telling him, “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to grab my purse, leave, and I’m gone.

“It was like I was walking away from a lion that was standing on its hind legs in a cage with me. By that point, I knew I was in a serious amount of danger,” Farrell said.

As she reached the door to leave, Toback allegedly barked, “You will never amount to anything if you don’t do this film,” and she ran outside to her roommate’s car.

After the incident, Toback allegedly called Farrell multiple times, sobbing and saying that he loved her. She changed her phone number—then looked into getting a restraining order. She says she may not have completed her petition to receive one, as the courts have no record of a civil order of protection.


“It’s something you want to bury and run away from the memory of it. It’s very terrifying,” says Farrell, who now runs Mental Fitness, a South Carolina nonprofit that helps students with mindfulness, body image, and other mental health concerns.

Meanwhile, Maslin says she was “spooked” by her brush with Toback but that she doesn’t consider herself a victim of harassment.

“I feel like I took care of it myself and I don’t feel like a victim, but I feel like this very strange guy came at me, very early in my career, and revealed a very spooky part of himself,” Maslin tells The Daily Beast.

And the way Toback has reimagined the story is revealing, ghoulish, and sexist, she says. Canby’s Sunday review of Fingers came after Maslin’s daily critique, which was what people would often get worked up about, Maslin says.

During a 2013 interview with Alec Baldwin at the 92nd Street Y, Toback recalls fighting Maslin’s boss, Vincent Canby, but doesn’t mention her at all.

Maslin describes Toback’s account as “a sick, twisted, self-serving version of this story,” because Toback apparently didn’t remember making death threats to “an insignificant woman in her twenties.” Instead, Toback recounted the incident as “an epic battle between himself and the great Vincent Canby, who also thought badly of Fingers and wrote an Arts and Leisure piece saying so.”

An audience member asked Toback about Spy magazine’s “hit job,” which detailed sexual harassment allegations against the director. “Did that register at all for you? Do you care what people write about you?” the man asked of the 1980s exposé.

In response, Toback talked of his grandfather’s advice for schoolyard enemies, saying not to let people bother him. Then he transitioned into Canby’s Fingers review, saying it was “the closest I came to really letting something get to me.”

Toback told Baldwin he wanted to “kill” Canby and sought advice from Norman Mailer, who allegedly said there would be no better revenge “than the ability to continue working” and having Canby watch his success from the sideline.

Then Toback boasted of “the cruelest thing I ever did in my life... the most sadistic thing.”

Years later, when Toback heard Canby was dying of cancer, he called him at Mt. Sinai Hospital to laugh and wish him a miserable death.

Toback claimed he told Canby, “Vince, I heard you’re suffering terribly and dying of cancer, and I just want you to know how thrilled I am, how excited I am and I hope you continue to suffer and die a miserable and slow death.” Then he hung up.

But Maslin says Canby wasn’t at Mt. Sinai, and that if Toback did call the hospital, he must have harassed a sick stranger.

“Maybe he called Vincent in the hospital. He knew Vincent was dying of cancer. He got that right. I wonder if he really did it,” Maslin said.

“He certainly didn’t do anything to threaten or approach Vincent when he wrote the Sunday piece saying Fingers was terrible. He didn’t have the nerve,” she added. “All he did was harass the young woman [at the Times].

“That really matters. It’s set up a pattern of his going after the people he thought were vulnerable.”

[admin]

Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams Share Their Stories of James Toback’s Sexual Harassment
Both women encountered the director early in their careers. Both describe remarkably similar experiences of his targeting and humiliation of young actresses.
by Krista Smith with Julie Miller
October 26, 2017 1:48 PM

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YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

Photograph by Jeff Vespa.

A week after The New York Times and The New Yorker ran back-to-back reports cataloguing Harvey Weinstein’s alleged serial sexual harassment of women in Hollywood, actress Selma Blair saw a story on HuffPost about writer and director James Toback’s new film that made her blood run cold. The piece, written by a female reporter who interviewed Toback at the Venice Film Festival, was titled “James Toback Gets Us, He Truly Gets Us in ‘The Private Life of a Modern Woman.’”

Blair tweeted the story with a single word in response: “Ironic.”

In the days that followed, Blair, who has appeared in films such as Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, and Hellboy, learned about a group of women on social media who claimed to have been sexually harassed by the director (Two Girls and a Guy) and Oscar-nominated writer (Bugsy). Their accounts sounded eerily familiar. The group, which included Blair, worked with Los Angeles Times reporter Glenn Whipp on a story that broke on October 22, citing 38 women in total who alleged sexual harassment suffered at the hands of Toback. Since then, the number of accusers has risen to more than 200 women—including Blair and Oscar-nominated actress Rachel McAdams, who both spoke exclusively to Vanity Fair this week about their experiences with Toback. (Toback, 72, has written for Vanity Fair in the past. When reached by phone Wednesday evening, Toback said he had no comment on any of the allegations.)

Blair, 45, and McAdams, 38, tell remarkably similar stories about Toback’s modus operandi—the requests to meet him in hotel rooms, flattery about their acting skills, the promise of a role in the movie Harvard Man, which opened in 2001. The consistent themes in the stories of Blair, McAdams, and the hundreds of actresses who have come forward with their own tales of harassment hint at some of the reasons charges of sexual misconduct have plagued Hollywood since its inception. Actors and actresses, newcomers especially, essentially are always auditioning—any encounter, especially in a company town such as Los Angeles, could lead to a big break. The situation is compounded by the fact that many acting courses teach students to use, explore, and expose their vulnerabilities. So when a threatening individual manipulates a performer’s insecurities in a meeting purportedly related to an acting role, the experience can be confusing.

Explained McAdams, “I was 21 and in the middle of theater school when I met [Toback]. Theater school was a very safe space.” But Toback, she said, “used the same language during my audition—that you have to take risks and sometimes you’re going to be uncomfortable and sometimes it’s going to feel dangerous. And that’s a good thing—when there is danger in the air and you feel like you are out of your comfort zone.”

It is easy to see how a young actress at the start of her career might respond to a director’s lecherous behavior as an acting exercise or “test.” In an opinion piece in The New York Times that detailed an incident with Harvey Weinstein, Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o noted that “body work” is part of the coursework at fine-arts programs at schools such as Yale. Perhaps Weinstein knew this when he reportedly asked to massage and be massaged by women. Perhaps Toback knew this when he allegedly asked young women, after rattling off his film credits and famous friends, to trust him and disrobe so that he could help them become better actresses.

When reports of Toback’s alleged harassment began pouring in, both Blair and McAdams were motivated to speak out. Blair, who cooperated with the initial Los Angeles Times story on the condition her name not be used, said Toback threatened her life after their encounter, which she said took place in 1999. And in the nearly 20 years that followed, the actress only told two people about her experience.

“I still felt so powerless and scared,” Blair said, describing her emotional state earlier this week. “I kept thinking, ‘O.K., is there a big actress who is going to come out so that she can be the face of this? I want to bring as much awareness to this harassment as possible because I want Toback to be held accountable.”

Toback denied the allegations to the Los Angeles Times, claiming that he had never met any of the then-38 accusers or, if he did, the meetings were very brief. He also claimed that for the last 22 years it had been “biologically impossible” for him to do what he was accused of, citing diabetes and a heart condition.

“When he called these women liars, and said he didn’t recall meeting them and that the behavior alleged could not be attributed to him, I just felt rage and an obligation to speak publicly now,” Blair said.

“I did not want to talk about this ever again,” McAdams said. “However, even though it is a really bad memory, I feel like some good could come from talking about it now.”

What follow are edited excerpts from the actresses’ conversations with Vanity Fair.

Selma Blair’s representatives arranged for her to meet Toback and described him as a “really interesting and odd guy,” who could help her gain credibility with the indie-film crowd. (She had filmed Cruel Intentions, but it had not yet been released.) Blair’s team said Toback would only meet in his hotel room; Blair insisted that they meet in the hotel restaurant. The two were meant to discuss a project Toback had written called Harvard Man, so the actress dressed accordingly—a pleated Y.S.L. skirt, a grosgrain ribbon, and a cable-knit sweater.

That afternoon, I arrived at the restaurant and sat down at a table. After a bit, the hostess came up to me and told me that James Toback could not make it down, but that he wanted me to meet him in his room. Against my better judgment, I went upstairs.

I was rattled, and looking back, I don’t think James Toback ever planned to come down to the restaurant.

I went in the room feeling a little off balance about the arrangement, but he seemed nonplussed. He pulled out the script and said, “I look at you, and I see that we have a real connection. You could be an incredible actress, just by your eyes. But I can tell you don’t have confidence.”

He said, “Where are your parents?”

I was thinking, “Why is he trying to make me feel so uncomfortable?” But I realize now he was really trying to figure out what support system I had. I answered him. My mother was in Michigan, and I had an estranged relationship with my father.

James said, “You know, I could have him killed.”

He sat back in his chair and said really confidently, “I do it all the time. I know people.”

Now I’m even more nervous, because he’s told me I have no confidence, he said he could have someone killed, and he said we had a connection—which no one had said to me before in this business. I really believed that when he started to talk . . . that he was going to be my mentor. That is how he got into my brain. You know, in acting classes they get into your personal history and connect that to work. So this conversation didn’t seem that strange. It seemed like he was concerned that I would not be seen as the actress I had the potential to be, and that he could do for me what he did for Robert Downey Jr.

It was about 40 minutes in and he said, “Will you trust me? I cannot continue to work with you unless you trust me.” He said, “I need you to take your clothes off. I need you to do this monologue naked.”

I said, “Why would my character need to be naked? She is a lawyer in a courtroom.”

He said, “Because I need to see how your body moves. How comfortable you are with your body. This is where I start training you.”

I told him I was uncomfortable. But he continued to coax me—saying that this was in no way a come-on. This was part of training. He wanted to make me a good actress. He wanted to make me comfortable. I thought, “Well, my representation sent me to see him. He must be really important.” I took off my sweater. I was so private about my body. I do remember looking down at the script and seeing my bare chest and not being able to focus on anything but the words and my face being so hot and puffy and feeling so ashamed.

He commented on my body—said that it was Eastern European. I was just trying to block it all out.

He said, “Wow, you need a lot of work.”

I put my sweater back on. And he proceeded to tell me how much help I needed . . . that I was really just a mess. As I was telling him, “Guess I better get out of here . . .” he sat down on the bed and said, “No, you have to talk to me.” He started to rub his penis through his pants and asked, ‘Would you f**k me?’”

I managed to say, “No. No, I won’t. Are you married? Do you have a wife?”

He said, “It’s complicated, but yes. She’s wonderful. She’s a writer. She’s a teacher. And she’s a wonderful woman. And I have a girlfriend who can’t get enough sex. But I love that. I have to come six or seven times a day or else it really doesn’t work for me to get through my day.”

I felt trapped. I did not know how to get out and save face and not make a scene. Was I imagining it? He dropped some names [of actresses] that he did some really dark sexual things with. These felt like lies and dark gossip and that he would add my name to the list. I went to leave and he got up and blocked the door. He said, “You have to do this for me. You cannot leave until I have release.”

I said, “What do I have to do? I cannot touch you. I cannot have sex with you.”

“He said, ‘It’s O.K. I can come in my pants. I have to rub up against your leg. You have to pinch my nipples. And you have to look into my eyes.’” I thought, “Well, if I can get out of here without being raped . . .”

He walked me back to the bed. He sat me down. He got on his knees. And he continued to press so hard against my leg. He was greasy and I had to look into those big brown eyes. I tried to look away, but he would hold my face. So I was forced to look into his eyes. And I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister.

After he finished, he told me, “There is a girl who went against me. She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

He looked at me with those bug eyes that had just raped my leg. And I said, “Yes. I understand.”

I left. I was shaking and scared. I told my boyfriend and made him promise not to tell anyone. My career was just starting, and I was frightened. I thought I was going to be kidnapped if I told anybody.

When my manager called me back and said, “James Toback wants to see you again,” I said, “That man is vile. And I never want to be in a room with him again. Do not send any girls or women to him.”

I didn’t want to speak up because, it sounds crazy but, even until now, I have been scared for my life. But then these brave women spoke out, and he called them liars and said he didn’t recall meeting them . . . that [the] behavior alleged was disgusting and it could not be attributed to him. I just felt rage. Pure rage.

Also, where are the people who have been financing his movies? His high-profile friends? This man, unlike Harvey Weinstein, does not have a company that can hold him accountable. Who is coming out and saying, “This is a horrible story and we are looking into this.” Or, “I knew something.” Where was our union?

I would like to see Toback admit this happened. None of us are asking for money, for jobs, or for fame. We don’t want to be threatened on social media or called whistleblowers by people who don’t know what it means to be defiled and degraded and made to feel worthless. What I do want, in my dreams, is for someone bigger than me to call him out. I want to light the pyre of public opinion.”


Photograph by Jason McDonald.

Rachel McAdams was a 21-year-old theater student in Toronto when she was invited to audition for Toback for a role in Harvard Man.

This was a big audition. I was pretty fresh and new to all of this. So we did the audition and he said, “I think you’re really, really talented. I think you’re quite good for this actually, but I’d like to workshop it a little with you, and maybe rehearse a bit more and see if we can get you all the way there. Leave your phone number with the casting agent’s assistant, and we’ll get together and workshop this a bit.”

So I did. And he called me that night saying, “Would you come to my hotel so we can work on this and talk about it?” I actually had my first TV job the next day and had to get up at five in the morning. So I said, “Is there any other time that we can get together?” I didn’t really want to go to a hotel and meet him. He said, “It has to be tonight. I am going out of town first thing tomorrow. This is our only chance.” I really didn’t want to go. I was so nervous about this show that I was starting because I hadn’t done TV before. I wanted to focus on that, but he was so insistent. So I went over to the hotel, went to the room, and he had all of these books and magazines splayed out on the floor. He invited me to sit on the floor which was a bit awkward. Pretty quickly the conversation turned quite sexual and he said, “You know, I just have to tell you. I have masturbated countless times today thinking about you since we met at your audition.”

He started that kind of manipulative talk of, “How brave are you? How far you are willing to go as an actress? I want to build some intimacy between us because we have to have a very trusting relationship and this is a very difficult part.” Then he asked me to read passages out loud from different reviews of his films and different critics talking about his work. It was all so confusing. I kept thinking, “When are we getting to the rehearsal part?” Then he went to the bathroom and left me with some literature to read about him. When he came back he said, “I just jerked off in the bathroom thinking about you. Will you show me your pubic hair?” I said no.

Eventually, I just excused myself. I can’t remember how long I was there. I felt like I was there forever. This has been such a source of shame for me—that I didn’t have the wherewithal to get up and leave. I kept thinking, “This is going to become normal any minute now. This is going to all make sense. This is all above board somehow.” Eventually I just realized that it wasn’t.

I was very lucky that I left and he didn’t actually physically assault me in any way.

I had never experienced anything like that in my life. I was so naïve. I think I just didn’t want to believe that it could turn worse. But yes, there was this sinking feeling inside of me. Like, “Oh my god, I am in this hotel room alone with this person.” I just kept trying to normalize it—thinking, “This has to be some weird acting exercise. This is some kind of test. I just have to show that I am brave and this does not bother me and nothing can shake me.” I really was frozen. My brain was not catching up.

When I went home, I just couldn’t sleep. It was the worst way to start a new job. I got up very early in the morning and called my agent at the time. And she was outraged. She was very sorry. But she also said, “I can’t believe he did it again. This isn’t the first time that this has happened. He did this the last time that he was in town. He did this to one of my other actresses.” That is when I got mad, because I felt like I was kind of thrown into the lion’s den and given no warning that he was a predator. This was something that he was known for doing already. I was so surprised to hear that.

Sexual harassment is so pervasive, many women seem to have their own story. I just think there is an “anything goes” [attitude] in Hollywood that gets taken too far. And there is a sense that you don’t have to be responsible for your actions—there is just no limit to what you can be subjected to.

This has all got to stop. We need to start acknowledging what an epidemic this is, and what a deep-seated problem this is. You have to get it all out in the open and in the light so that we can really understand how pervasive this is. I think we almost have to exhaust ourselves sharing our experiences before the rebuilding can begin. And hopefully we never slip back into this darkness again.

[admin]

President Trump and accusations of sexual misconduct: The complete list
By Meg Kelly
The Washington Post
November 22, 2017

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“Women are very special. I think it’s a very special time, a lot of things are coming out and I think that’s good for our society and I think it’s very, very good for women and I’m very happy a lot of these things are coming out. I’m very happy it’s being exposed.”
— President Trump, remarks to reporters, Nov. 21, 2017

Sexual misconduct by powerful men has all but taken over the news, with Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and senatorial hopeful Roy Moore (R-Ala.) among the politicians on this growing list.

Trump vociferously has taken aim at accused Democrats, while apparently giving a pass to Republicans. Moreover, it was only a year ago that similar accusations against Trump dominated the headlines, with more than a dozen women accusing Trump of improper conduct or sexual assault. Many of the accusations surfaced after the release of a 2005 tape of Trump speaking graphically about kissing and groping women uninvited.

During the second presidential debate, Anderson Cooper asked then-candidate Trump point blank whether he had “actually kiss[ed] women without consent or grope[d] women without consent?” Trump asserted that “nobody has more respect for women” and Cooper pushed him, asking, “Have you ever done those things?” Trump denied that he had, responding: “No, I have not.”

The president has held this line, telling the New York Times, when asked the same question: “I don’t do it. I don’t do it.”

But it’s not as simple as that. Many of the women have produced witnesses who say they heard about these incidents when they happened — long before Trump’s political aspirations were known. Three have produced at least two witnesses.

Such contemporaneous accounts are essential to establishing the credibility of the allegation because they reduce the chance that a person is making up a story for political purposes. In the case of sexual allegations, such accounts can help bolster the credibility of the “she said” side of the equation. Often, a sexual assault will occur behind closed doors. The contemporary corroborators can explain what they heard at the time and whether the story being told now is consistent with how the story was told years earlier. This does not necessarily mean an allegation is true, but it does give journalistic organizations more confidence to report on the allegation.

The Fact Checker first detailed some of the accusations against Trump during the 2016 campaign. That fact check also detailed the witnesses who backed up claims of sexual accusations against former president Bill Clinton — who, like Trump, insisted the women accusing him were not telling the truth.

Here’s a list of 13 women who have publicly come forward with claims that Trump had physically touched them inappropriately in some way, and the witnesses they provided. We did not include claims that were made only through Facebook posts or other social media, or in lawsuits that subsequently were withdrawn.

We also did not include the accounts of former beauty contestants who say Trump walked in on them when they were half nude because there were no allegations of touching. Trump had bragged on the Howard Stern show of his “inspections” during the pageants: “You know they’re standing there with no clothes. Is everybody OK? And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”

Two or more contemporary corroborators

Natasha Stoynoff

Allegation: While she was interviewing Trump in 2005 for an article for People magazine about the first anniversary of his third marriage, Trump lured her into a room at Mar-a-Lago, forced her against a wall and abruptly kissed her, forcing his tongue into her mouth. He then said they were going to have an affair.

Corroborators:

Marina Grasic, who has known Stoynoff for more than 25 years. She said she got a call from her friend the day after the alleged attack, detailing exactly how Trump pushed Stoynoff against a wall.

Liz McNeil, at the time a reporter for People (she is now an editor). She said that she heard about the incident the day after Stoynoff returned from her assignment. “She was very upset and told me how he shoved her against a wall,” she said.

Mary Green, another People reporter (now editor) who had just returned to New York. “In an early conversation we had in her office, she told me about what happened with Donald Trump,” Green said. “She was shaky, sitting at her desk, relaying that, ‘He took me to this other room, and when we stepped inside, he pushed me against a wall and stuck his tongue down my throat. Melania was upstairs and could have walked in at any time.’ ”

Liza Hamm, part of a “tight-knit’ group of friends. “Natasha has always been a vivacious person who wants to believe in the best of people, and this experience definitely messed with that outlook,” she said.

Paul McLaughlin, Stoynoff’s former journalism professor. He said Stoynoff called him at the time of the alleged incident seeking advice on how to handle it: “She didn’t know what to do, she was very conflicted, she was angry, she was really confused about how to deal with this.” After a discussion, he said, Stoynoff decided it would be best if she kept the incident to herself.

Response: Anthony Senecal, Trump’s former butler, denied the incident: “No, that never happened. Come on, that’s just bull crap.” Trump said: “Why didn’t she do this 12 years ago? She’s a liar. … It never happened. It’s a lie.”

Rachel Crooks

Allegation: Trump in 2005 kissed her directly on the lips after she introduced herself and said she was a receptionist who worked for a company that did business with Trump.

Corroborators:

Brianne Webb, her sister. She said Crooks called her about the incident as soon as she returned to her desk. “Being from a town of 1,600 people, being naive, I was like, ‘Are you sure he didn’t just miss trying to kiss you on the cheek?’ She said, ‘No, he kissed me on the mouth.’ I was like, ‘That is not normal.’ ”

Clint Hackenburg, her boyfriend at the time. After he asked her that evening how her day had gone, “she paused for a second, and then started hysterically crying.”

Response: Shouting at the New York Times reporter who called for comment, Trump said, “None of this ever took place.” He then told the reporter, “You are a disgusting human being.”

Cathy Heller

Allegation: While having Mother’s Day brunch at Mar-a-Lago in 1997 or 1998, her mother-in-law introduced her to Trump. She extended her hand to greet him and he grabbed her and kissed her on the mouth. She did turn her head slightly and so he wasn’t able to “get my whole mouth.”

Corroborators:

Lloyd Heller, her husband. He said that she immediately told him. He said he told her that “you should have punched him” and he remembers being “puzzled” by why Trump would do something like that in a public space.

A relative who was there, but wanted to stay unnamed. This person said Heller was immediately shocked and asked whether he or she had seen what happened. The two then talked about the incident asking, “Who does he think he is?”

Response: Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller told People Magazine: “There is no way that something like this would have happened in a public place on Mother’s Day at Mr. Trump’s resort.”

One contemporary corroborator, one additional witness

Kristin Anderson

Allegation: While she was at a Manhattan nightclub in the early 1990s, Trump slid his fingers under her miniskirt, moved up her inner thigh and touched her vagina through her underwear.

Corroborators:

Kelly Stedman, a friend. She said she was told about the incident at a women’s brunch a few days later. The women found themselves “laughing at how pathetic it was” on Trump’s part.

Brad Trent, a New York photographer. He says he heard the story from Anderson at a dinner in 2007. “It was just girls saying stories about how they got hit on by creepy old guys,” Trent said of the conversation around the table.

Response: The Trump campaign, in an emailed statement, said Anderson had fabricated the story: “Mr. Trump strongly denies this phony allegation by someone looking to get some free publicity. It is totally ridiculous.”

One corroborator

Summer Zervos

Allegation: Trump kissed Zervos on the lips when he met her in his New York office, which upset Zervos, who had been a contestant on Season 5 of Trump’s “The Apprentice.” She then met Trump at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007 for what she thought would be dinner; instead, she was escorted to his private bungalow. “I stood up and he came to me and started kissing me open-mouthed as he was pulling me toward him,” she said. “He then grabbed my shoulder and started kissing me again very aggressively and placed his hand on my breast.” He kept pursuing her, she said, at one point “thrusting his genitals” against her as he tried to kiss her. She said she again rebuffed him.

Corroborator:

Ann Russo, friend: She said that Zervos told her in 2010 that Trump had been “verbally, physically, and sexually aggressive with her” but that she had rebuffed his advances. “It was apparent she was conflicted with what Mr. Trump had done to her,” she said, adding that Zervos was torn between her admiration for Trump and Trump’s behavior.

(In her lawsuit against Trump, Zervos says that in 2007 she “spoke to a friend and her parents about [the initial kiss], all of whom concluded that this must just be the way that Mr. Trump greeted people.” She then told her father about the hotel incident, the lawsuit says.)

Response: Trump issued a statement by John Barry, a cousin of Zervos’s: “I think Summer wishes she could still be on reality TV, and in an effort to get that back she’s saying all of these negative things about Mr. Trump. That’s not how she talked about him before. I can only imagine that Summer’s actions today are nothing more than an attempt to regain the spotlight at Mr. Trump’s expense, and I don’t think it reflects well.”

Mindy McGillivray

Allegation: McGillivray said she was groped by Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2003, when she was 23, at a photo shoot during a concert by Ray Charles. “All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned.’’ She told the Palm Beach Post she was certain it was not an accident. “This was a pretty good nudge. More of a grab,’’ she said. “It was pretty close to the center of my butt. I was startled. I jumped.’’

Corroborator:

Ken Davidoff, photographer: He vividly remembers when McGillivray pulled him aside moments after the alleged incident and told him, “Donald just grabbed my ass!’’ He did not witness the incident himself.

Jill Harth

Allegation: In the early 1990s, Jill Harth and her boyfriend at the time, George Houraney, worked with Trump on a beauty pageant in Atlantic City, and later accused Trump of inappropriate behavior toward Harth during their business dealings. She said that Trump pursued her and groped her; she alleged attempted rape in a sexual harassment suit that was withdrawn as a condition for settling a contract dispute. (We are including her account here because she gave interviews making these charges even after the lawsuit was withdrawn.) Trump had “his hands all over me,” Harth told the New York Times. “He was trying to kiss me. I was freaking out.”

Corroborator:

George Houraney, her boyfriend and later husband. The two are divorced but he confirmed her account in an interview with Nicholas Kristof: “Houraney and Harth haven’t spoken in years, but they offered almost identical accounts when I interviewed them separately, and their stories match Harth’s deposition and her sexual harassment lawsuit from the time.”

Response: Trump said it was Harth who had pursued him, and his office shared email messages in which Harth thanked Trump for helping her personally and professionally. The campaign said she was a “pawn” in a lawsuit created by her ex-husband.

Jessica Leeds

Allegation: Trump attacked her while seated next to her on an airline flight. More than three decades ago, when she was a traveling business executive at a paper company, Leeds told the New York Times in 2016, she sat beside Trump in the first-class cabin of a flight to New York. They had never met before. About 45 minutes after takeoff, Trump lifted the armrest and began to touch her. Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt. “He was like an octopus,” Leeds said. “His hands were everywhere.” She fled to the back of the plane. “It was an assault,” she said.

Corroborator: Leeds told the story to at least four people close to her, who also spoke with the New York Times. But most appear to have heard about it more recently. Linda Ross, a neighbor and friend, heard about it six months before Leeds went public, for instance.

Reaction: The Trump campaign offered the perspective of a British man who claimed to have sat near the two on the plane and three decades later remembered the incident in detail. “She was the one being flirtatious,” he said.

Other accusers

Temple Taggart McDowell: The 1997 Miss Utah USA said Trump kissed her directly on the lips, at a time he was married to Marla Maples and McDowell was 21. Later, when she visited Trump Tower to discuss a modeling contract, she says Trump again embraced and kissed her on the lips, this time in front of two pageant chaperones and a receptionist. The New York encounter made one of the chaperones so “uncomfortable” that she advised McDowell not to go into any rooms with Trump alone, McDowell told NBC News.

Karena Virginia:

A yoga instructor said Trump harassed and groped her during a chance encounter at the U.S. Open in 1998. Virginia said Trump, a total stranger, then grabbed her arm and touched her breast. “I was in shock,” Virginia said. “I flinched. He said, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ I felt intimidated and powerless. I said ‘yes.’”

Jennifer Murphy:

A former Apprentice contestant said Trump in 2004 kissed her on the lips. “He walked me to the elevator, and I said goodbye. I was thinking ‘oh, he’s going to hug me,’ but … he pulled my face in and gave me a smooch.”

Ninni Laaksonen:

A former Miss Finland said Trump in 2006 grabbed her bottom shortly after he had married Melania. “Trump stood right next to me and suddenly he squeezed my butt. He really grabbed my butt.”

Jessica Drake:

A porn star and sex educator said that during a 2006 golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Trump “grabbed” her and two other unnamed women tightly and kissed them on the lips “without asking permission.” He then offered Drake $10,000 and the use of his private plane, she said, if she would agree to come back to his room and accompany him to a party.

[admin]

Paz de la Huerta’s lawyer says prosecutors are stalling Weinstein investigation
by Adam Reiss and Corky Siuemaszko
December 1, 2017

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The lawyer for actress Paz de la Huerta accused the Manhattan district attorney’s office Friday of dragging its feet on indicting disgraced Hollywood honcho Harvey Weinstein for rape.

Carrie Goldberg said she fears this could be a repeat of what happened two years ago when Weinstein escaped charges after Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez accused him of groping her and captured him on tape saying “I won’t do it again.”

“We are very concerned about the unbelievable similarities here with what went down in 2015 when prosecutors dropped a strong case against Weinstein,” Goldberg said in a statement. “We are deeply concerned about the foot-dragging in convening a grand jury.”

Goldberg said they are throwing “down the gauntlet on behalf of our client” and are urging District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to “convene a grand jury by the end of next week.” De la Huerta claims Weinstein raped her twice in 2010.

“The NYPD detectives agree that there is probable cause to arrest,” she said. “They have copious evidence, yet once again, they aren’t arresting.”

While not mentioning Vance by name, Goldberg singled him out for stinging criticism.

“We have a DA who consistently refuses to prosecute powerful sexual predators,” she said. “We have a DA who receives campaign donations from Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys…the DA must stop being complicit in Harvey Weinstein escaping punishment.”

Goldberg was referring to reports that Weinstein lawyer David Bois gave Vance a $10,000 campaign contribution after he decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute the producer for allegedly groping Gutierrez.

A spokeswoman for the DA’s office denied allegations that the probe has stalled.

“This remains very much an active investigation,” she said. “We’ll decline further comment.”

A senior NYPD official told NBC News that they have not been told to put the kibosh on the case but admitted "there are considerable issues with the case."

"The case was weak from the beginning and she was not steadfast," the officials said, referring to de la Huerta. "There are also time gaps that are unexplained and it seems like there is no reasonable expectation of moving forward."

That is a markedly different tone from last month when NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said the allegations against Weinstein are “credible.”

“We have an actual case here,” Boyce said.

Weinstein has apologized for his treatment of women over the years but he has insisted through his spokesperson that any allegations of nonconsensual sex are “unequivocally denied.”

Reports that Weinstein allegedly harassed or assaulted dozens of women over the decades have triggered a deluge of accusations of sexual misconduct against other powerful men, including “Today” anchor Matt Lauer, who was fired this weekby NBC News.

Weinstein's lawyer Benjamin Brafman declined comment.

De la Huerta, a model and actress best known for her role as Lucy Danziger in “Boardwalk Empire,” told Vanity Fair Weinstein sexually assaulted her on two occasions — about a month apart — in her New York City apartment.

“He’s like a pig,” she told the magazine. “He raped me.”

NBC News has confirmed that police in Los Angeles and London are also investigating sexual misconduct or sexual assault allegations against Weinstein.

[admin]

Here are all the sexual misconduct accusations against Sen. Al Franken: Al Franken announced his resignation from the Senate floor Thursday as Senate Democrats called for him to resign.
by Jacob Pramuk | @jacobpramuk
CNBC.com
Published 10:45 AM ET Thu, 7 Dec 2017 Updated 12:22 PM ET Thu, 7 Dec 2017

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Sen. Al Franken announced his resignationon the Senate floor Thursday morning, as Democratic calls for his resignation mount following the latest sexual misconduct accusations against him.

About 30 Senate Democrats, starting with women, have urged the Minnesota Democrat to step down.

Franken on Thursday denied most of the allegations, which started to surface last month. Here are the eight accusations he faces:

Leeann Tweeden, a radio news anchor, says Franken groped and forcibly kissed her during a USO tour in 2006, before the former comedian was a senator. She says Franken "aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth" when the pair rehearsed a skit that featured a kiss. A photo also surfaced showing Franken looking at a camera while pretending to grab Tweeden's breasts as she was sleeping while clothed. The senator apologized for the photo but said he remembered the skit incident differently.

Lindsay Menz says Franken grabbed her buttocks when the pair posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. Franken later said he did not remember taking the picture but "felt badly" that Menz felt disrespected.

Two other unidentified women told HuffPost that Franken grabbed their buttocks at separate events in 2007 and 2008. One of the women says Franken suggested that he and she should go to the bathroom together. Franken said he did not remember the events and denied asking anyone to visit the bathroom with him.

Stephanie Kemplin, an Army veteran, says Franken put his hand on her breast during a USO tour in 2003. In a statement following that accusation, Franken's office said he has not "intentionally engage in" the "kind of conduct" described.

A woman described as a "former elected official in New England" told the Jezebel website that Franken tried to give her a "wet, open-mouthed kiss" during an event in 2006. The senator has not appeared to respond specifically to the allegation.

An unnamed former Democratic congressional aide told Politico that the senator tried to forcibly kiss her after he taped a radio show in 2006. She says she avoided the kiss, then heard Franken say "it's my right as an entertainer." Franken called the allegation "categorically not true."

Tina Dupuy writes in The Atlantic that Franken put his hand around her waist while the pair posed for a photo and squeezed "at least twice" during an event in 2009. The senator has not specifically responded to that allegation.

[admin]

Conyers allegations: Ex-staffer says congressman ‘inappropriately touched’ her
by Rachel Elbaum
December 5, 2017

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New allegations against Rep. John Conyers emerged late Monday with a former staffer accusing the congressman of sexual harassment in an affidavit released by a lawyer.

Conyers, the longest serving member of Congress, announced Tuesday that he was resigning, effective immediately, had faced calls from lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to quit following previous allegations of misconduct.

In the document released by lawyer Lisa Bloom, former staffer Elisa Grubbs said she worked in Conyers’ office from approximately 2001 to 2013. She claimed that the congressman "inappropriately touched" her during her time there. Grubbs also said she witnessed Conyers touching other women in the office.

In one incident, he slid his hand up her skirt and rubbed her thighs while the two were sitting next to each other in the front row of a church.

She said that when it happened she jumped up and exclaimed in front of other staffers, “He just ran his hand up my thigh!”

Another time at Conyers' home, the congressman walked out of his bathroom naked, knowing that she was in the room, she said. She added that she “immediately ran out of the house.”

AFFIDAVIT OF ELISA GRUBBS

I, ELISA GRUBBS, declare as follows:

1. I worked for Representative John Conyers, Jr. ("Rep. Conyers"), in various capacities from approximately 2001 to approximately 2013. Accordingly, the following facts are within my personal knowledge and if called as a witness, I could and would competently testify thereto, under oath.

2. I personally witnessed Rep. Conyers touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Marion Brown and other female staffers on multiple occasions.

3. Ms. Brown is my cousin and Rep. Conyers often referred to us as the "Big Leg Cousins" and would often say, "Those are some big leg girls," while referring to Ms. Brown and myself.

4. I also experienced my own sexual harassment at the hands of Rep. Conyers as he would sit close to me while stroking and rubbing my thighs. When Rep. Conyers inappropriately touched me like this, my eyes would pop out and I would be stunned in disbelief.

5. One time when I was at Rep. Conyers' home, he came out of the bathroom completely naked while he knew I was in the room. I immediately ran out of the house.

6. Another time, Rep. Conyers slid his hand up my skirt and rubbed my thighs while I was sitting next to him in the front row of a church. I was startled and sprung to my feet and exclaimed, "He just ran his hand up my thigh!" Other staffers witnessed this event.

7. In 2005, I attended a fundraising event with Rep. Conyers and Ms. Brown at a hotel in Chicago thrown by the late Dr. Young. While at this event, I overheard Rep. Conyers ask Ms. Brown to come to his hotel room, and that he needed her help with something. I then witnessed Rep. Conyers slip Ms. Brown his hotel room key. After this event, I went to my mother's house. Approximately forty-five (45) minutes later, I picked-up Ms. Brown from the hotel and took her to my mother's house. At the time, Ms. Brown was physically shaken and upset. Ms. Brown's eyes were red as she had been crying. Ms. Brown then proceeded to tell me and my mother that, "That S.O.B. just wanted me to have sex with him!"

8. Witnessing Rep. Conyers rub women's thighs and buttocks and make comments about women's physical attributes was a regular part of life while working in the Office of Rep. Conyers.

9. Rep. Conyers regularly undressed in front of female office staff. At times, Rep. Conyers would call one of the female staffers to his office, only to then come out of his private bathroom in his underwear.

10. At one point, I complained to Cynthia Martin, who was the then Chief of Staff in the Detroit office and Perry Apelbaum, who was the then Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the House Committee on the Judiciary regarding Rep. Conyers' inappropriate behavior. Despite my complaints, no action was taken and Rep. Conyers' inappropriate conduct continued.

I declare, under the penalty of perjury, under the laws of the State of Michigan, the District of Columbia, federal law and any other applicable law that the above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.

Executed this 03 day of December 2017, in Detroit, Michigan.

Signed: Elisa Grubbs

Lisa Bloom
✔
@LisaBloom
Congressman Conyers: women who worked for you deserved better.
This is the first of several affidavits I will be releasing describing allegations that you sexually harassed staffers and covered up complaints.
My client Marion Brown asks only for an acknowledgement and apology.
7:46 PM - Dec 4, 2017

Grubbs said she saw Conyers stroking the legs and buttocks of other staffers on multiple occasions.

“Witnessing Rep. Conyers rub women’s thighs and buttocks and make comments about women’s physical attributes was a regular part of life while working in the Office of Rep. Conyers,” Grubbs said in the affidavit.

His lawyer, Arnold Reed, called the affidavit “nothing more than tomfoolery” in a tweet on Monday night.

Arnold E. Reed
@ArnoldReedEsq
With regard to the latest #affidavit just released, this is nothing more than tomfoolery coming from the mouth of Harvey Weinstein's lawyer and unworthy of further comment.
8:51 PM - Dec 4, 2017

On Friday, Reed posted on Twitter statements made by other staffers saying that they had never witnessed any inappropriate behavior by Conyers toward Brown.

“She never expressed to me or to anyone to my knowledge that she was harassed in any fashion,” read a statement by former congressional aide Shawn Campbell.

Security guard James Marbury said that he witnessed Conyers and Brown together on numerous occasions and “she never appeared to be uncomfortable around Congressman Conyers, and in fact, appeared to have a good professional working-relationship with Congressman Conyers.”

Bloom has previously represented women making accusations of sexual harassment. For a short time she represented movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, but resigned soon after a New York Times story with multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him was published.

Bloom told Buzzfeed that her decision to represent him was “a colossal mistake.”

Grubbs said she would be prepared to testify to the allegations under oath. She is the cousin of Marion Brown, who described on TODAY last Thursday how Conyers propositioned her for sex.

Brown said that in one incident he undressed down to his underwear and asked her to satisfy him sexually in a Chicago hotel room in 2005.

Brown first came forward anonymously in a Buzzfeed story on Nov. 20, saying she was fired in 2014 for refusing his sexual advances.

Brown reached a settlement with Conyers in 2015 in which she signed a non-disclosure agreement, but she said she then decided to go public regardless.

In her tweets Monday, Bloom said the Grubbs affidavit is the first of several that she plans to release that describe accusations of sexual harassment.

She added that Brown would like only an acknowledgement and apology.

On Thursday, Conyers was hospitalized due to stress, his political consultant Sam Riddle told WDIV-TV.

Conyers, who represents Michigan's 13th Congressional District, has until now rejected calls to resign.

"It is not up to Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi did not elect Mr. Conyers," Reed, said at a press conference Thursday in Detroit. "And she sure as hell won't be the one to tell the congressman to leave."

On Nov. 26, Conyers stepped aside as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, saying that he looks forward to “vindicating myself and my family before the House Committee on Ethics.”

Rachel Elbaum reported from London. Richie Duchon reported from Los Angeles. Alex Moe reported from Washington, D.C.

[admin]

'You'll never work again': women tell how sexual harassment broke their careers
Actors, writers, assistants, comedians and journalists speak out about the toll that sexual assault and harassment in the workplace took on their futures
by Molly Redden
The Guardian
21 November 2017 07.07 EST Last modified on Wednesday 22 November 2017 12.03 EST

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Jane Seymour on the set of Jamaica Inn in 1982. The actor says she was threatened by ‘Hollywood’s most powerful man’ after she rejected his advances. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

As women come forward with accusations of sexual harassment in politics, media, entertainment and other fields, following the flood of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, it is striking how many of their stories share the same ending.

Either the alleged abuse, the victim’s refusal to stay quiet, or both, slams the door on critical job opportunities and puts a serious – sometimes terminal – dent in her career. In some cases the victim never works in her industry again.

We spoke to a number of women who have come forward about the costs that sexual harassment imposed on their futures and careers. As society debates what sort of consequences should befall their alleged abusers, it is clear that these women have already suffered a penalty.

“There are coming to be consequences for those actions, but it’s too little too late,” said one of the women, former DC Comics editor Janelle Asselin. “For the people who were harassed and assaulted, the consequences are something we’ve been living with for years.”

The comic-book editor

“The longer I read comics, the more I feel the possibilities are limitless,” said Asselin, reflecting on her time as an editor at the publishing powerhouse behind Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and big-budget superhero movies such as the current Justice League.

“If you’re at DC, you’re at the pinnacle of comics,” Asselin said. “You feel like you’ve made it into this amazing club where only an elite few get to work. It was a dream come true.”

Asselin rose to be the associate editor of one of DC’s most treasured properties – the Batman comics. From her perch, she shepherded one of DC’s first bisexual characters, Starling, into existence and put the brakes on sexist plot devices.

“There was a storyline in a Robin comic where the writer wanted the female villain to be tricked by chocolate. Because she’s a woman,” Asselin recalled with a laugh. It was her first time objecting to a major storyline, and she won.


At DC, Janelle Asselin rose to become the associate editor of the Batman comics, but later quit after reporting a male editor’s sexual comments. Photograph: Janelle Asselin

But her time with DC would be short-lived. After she and a number of women reported Eddie Berganza, one of the company’s most esteemed editors, to HR for making sexual comments in 2010, Berganza received a promotion.

Asselin quit.

Berganza, who has fired earlier this month following a BuzzFeed report about the allegations against him, has not publicly responded to the accusations and did not return a request for comment from the Guardian, nor did DC.

Earlier this month, Asselin tweeted: “I loved my job at DC until that year that things went south. I never would’ve left if it hadn’t been for DC’s lack of respect for the women who came forward. My career and life could be very different if Eddie Berganza hadn’t been what he was.”

“I underestimated what the psychological impact of reporting him and watching DC promote him anyway would be,” Asselin told the Guardian. By the end, “I hated going to work, because I had a very negative view about the company and their priorities.”

Asselin took a new position with Disney but was later laid off. Working as a comics journalist and starting an independent publishing company gave her some satisfaction, but ultimately, she burned out. Today, Asselin is a claims adjustor for a workers’ compensation insurer.

“My career was forever impacted by this,” she said. “It’s hard to know what would have happened if they had done something … But I feel like a lot of the women who left would have still been there.”

The TV writer

Kater Gordon’s career reached a peak many writers only dream of in fall 2009, when she shared an Emmy as a writer on the second season of Mad Men.

She hasn’t worked in television since.

I eventually walked away instead of fighting back

The reason, she recently told the Information, is that the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, sexually harassed her. The incident robbed her of all her confidence and placed her in a “lose-lose situation”: She felt it could end her career if she challenged him, but she didn’t feel like she could continue to work with him if she didn’t.

Weiner denies he harassed her. After leaving the Mad Men writer’s room, Gordon’s attempts to stay in television were dogged by tabloid rumors that she and Weiner were in a relationship.

“I had the Emmy, but instead of being able to use that as a launch pad for the rest of my career, it became an anchor because I felt I had to answer to speculative stories in the press,” she said. “I eventually walked away instead of fighting back.”


Kater Gordon after the 2009 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. ‘We are all paying a cost for harassment.’ Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

In an interview with the Guardian, Gordon – who is setting up a nonprofit to help victims of sexual harassment – said, “We are all paying a cost for harassment.”

“By removing talented, capable, willing people from the workforce, we are hindering our ability to capitalize on the full potential of our entire society. When large portions of the population feel unsafe or completely remove themselves or they’re involuntarily removed from the workforce, we’re limiting our potential. On a large scale.”

The costume designer

In 2010, Emma Bowers was one of the thousands of Hollywood strivers who perform creative work, for little to no pay, with the hope of gaining a toehold in the industry.

It made her highly exploitable, she said. Bowers’ trade was costume design. When she took on unpaid work for Andy Signore, the creator of YouTube series Honest Trailers, she claims, he sexually harassed her and responded viciously when she talked about his conduct to co-workers. Signore has not made a public statement about the allegations, and did not respond to request from the Guardian for comment.

“It killed my desire to work in the industry,” Bowers told the Guardian. “I had kind of this meltdown. I said, ‘I’m done with this industry, I don’t want to be in this world any more.’ And after that, I wasn’t.”

Today, she works in animal rescue, sometimes running educational workshops for kids. “The animals and the children are nicer to me than anybody in the film industry ever was,” she laughed.

The reporter

Michael Oreskes spent decades at the top of his field, first as the Washington bureau chief for the New York Times, then as the editorial director of NPR.

At least one reporter who accused him of sexual harassment said Oreskes stripped her of the confidence to reach the same heights.

The worst part wasn’t the weird offers, but the fact that he utterly destroyed my ambition
“When I first went to see him, it was after screwing up my nerve to try to be bold and maneuver myself into a better job, and after what happened with him, I never really tried that again,” she told the Washington Post.

Oreskes has not publicly commented on the claims of harassment, but in an internal memo obtained by CNN, he wrote, “I am deeply sorry to the people I hurt. My behavior was wrong and inexcusable, and I accept full responsibility.”

The reporter, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to damage her employment prospects, added: “The worst part of my whole encounter with Oreskes wasn’t the weird offers of room service lunch or the tongue kiss but the fact that he utterly destroyed my ambition.”

The actors

Sophie Dix felt like she was on the verge of success. Then she met Harvey Weinstein.

Now a screenplay writer, Dix in the 1990s was an actor with a growing repertoire, scoring roles opposite Donald Pleasence and Colin Firth. Weinstein, she claims, interrupted her rise after he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room one night and she refused to keep his attack to herself.

“I was met with a wall of silence,” she told the Guardian. “People who were involved in the film were great, my friends and my family were amazing and very compassionate, but people in the industry didn’t want to know about it, they didn’t want to hear.”

Dix doesn’t know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but she never landed another movie role again.

Part of her was all right with that. “I decided if this what being an actress is like, I don’t want it,” she said. She threw herself into her screenwriting career. But the assault, she said, was “the single most damaging thing that’s happened in my life” and derailed her acting ambitions.

Weinstein has repeatedly denied accusations of non-consensual contact, although he has appeared to acknowledge having sexually harassed some workers.


Sophie Dix: ‘I was met with a wall of silence.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

“I had done some TV and stuff before, that but this was my big movie break,” Dix recalled. “I still had a decent acting career, but it was all in TV. I never really had a film career. I think my film career was massively cut short.

“I’ve had friends call after the New York Times pieces came out, some who are now really famous, who knew about it at the time, and they say: ‘This was the moment it changed for you.’”

Others believe Weinstein himself played an active role in icing them out of the industry.

Annabella Sciorra, who has accused Weinstein of violently raping her, believes he wielded his power to cloud her reputation.

“From 1992, I didn’t work again until 1995,” she told the New Yorker. “I just kept getting this pushback of ‘We heard you were difficult; we heard this or that.’ I think that that was the Harvey machine.”

Her friend, the actor Rosie Perez, recalled urging her to go to the police. “She said, ‘I can’t go to the police. He’s destroying my career.’ ”


Annabella Sciorra in New York. Photograph: Charles Sykes/AP

The Hollywood producer was a storied bully and media manipulator.

Darryl Hannah claims there were “instant repercussions” for resisting his advances. The Miramax plane left without her at an international premiere of Kill Bill 2, and her flights, stylists and accommodations were cancelled for another.

“I thought that was the repercussion, you know, the backlash,” Hannah said.

“This fear of losing your career is not losing your ticket to a borrowed dress and earrings someone paid you to wear,” said the actor Ellen Barkin. “It’s losing your ability to support yourself, to support your family, and this is fucking real whether you are the biggest movie star or the lowest-pay-grade assistant.”

Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Jane Seymour was a young actor when she rejected the propositions of “the most powerful man in Hollywood at that time”.

Seymour said the man, who she did not name, threatened to blacklist her if she ever repeated the details of their encounter.

“You’ll never work ever again anywhere on the planet,” Seymour said he told her. She called the incident “devastating” and said it caused her to drop out of acting for at least a year, and almost permanently.

The production company assistant

Weinstein Company assistants also say they came in for abuse that forced them to leave the industry.

Emily Nestor was a law school graduate and business school student when she considered turning a temporary position at the Weinstein Company into a career in movies.

Then Weinstein began to relentlessly proposition her, she says.

“I was definitely traumatized for a while, in terms of feeling so harassed and frightened,” Nestor said. “It made me feel incredibly discouraged that this could be something that happens on a regular basis. I actually decided not to go into entertainment because of this incident.”


Emily Nestor (right) at a film party in New York. Photograph: Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

The comedians

Louis CK was one of the most revered names in comedy, and so was his agent.

That proved to be a career obstacle for comedians Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, who claim that the comedian exposed himself to them and then grew angry when they told friends in the comedy world about his behavior.

Whenever they saw Louis CK’s agent, Dave Becky, attached to a project – and there were many times – they didn’t even bother to put themselves in the running.

“We know immediately that we can never even submit our material,” Wolov told the Times.

Louis CK has said the sexual allegations against him are true. “Know I never threatened anyone,” Becky has said.

Abby Schachner said she was deeply discouraged when she called Louis CK to invite him to a show and he masturbated while on the phone. She said the incident was one of the factors that pushed her out of comedy. Today, she illustrates children’s books.

“I can’t even make a phone call, how am I going to pursue this as a career?” Schachner thought to herself at the time, she told the Guardian. “It knocks your confidence away … If you honestly feel no confidence, it’s better to hide.”