Sexual abuse in the American film industry
Speculation about sexual assault in the industry grew in 1977, when director Roman Polanski left the United States after being convicted on charges of drugging and raping a thirteen-year-old girl.
[12] Patricia Douglas, a dancer and film extra, reported being raped by David Ross, a sales employee at Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer studios, during a party she was hired to entertain guests with dozens of other women hosted by the company in 1937.
Patricia was cleaned at the hospital instead of evidence being collected, news reports revealing her personal information lied that she was promiscuous and had contracted a sexually transmitted disease, and even the prosecutor was accused of taking bribes in exchange for dropping the charges.
[14] Stenn would later release the documentary Girl 27 to cover Patricia's reports and legal efforts and ensuing fallout, as well as other sexual abuses of female celebrities in the American entertainment industry.
Actresses and feminist activists Rose McGowan and Jessica Chastain have voiced their support for the documentary and believe it to be vital education on sexual abuse cultures in Hollywood.
According to Gerald Clarke's book Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland, Mayer "held meetings with the young woman seated on his lap, his hands on her chest".
Geimer stated that the director took her to the house of actor Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles, under the pretense of wanting her as a model for a photo shoot for Vogue magazine.
The discovery of their affair sparked a dispute over custody of the younger children Satchel (later: Ronan), Dylan and Moses, in the course of which an allegation of sexual abuse against Allen arose.
[31] In February 2014, when she was 28, Dylan repeated the assault allegation in an open letter in the New York Times blog of Nicholas Kristof,[32] a family friend, stating: "When I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and took me to a dark attic on the second floor of our house.
[47] Conversely, actors Diane Keaton,[58] Alec Baldwin,[59] Anjelica Huston,[60] Dianne Wiest,[61] Sean Penn,[62] Judy Davis,[63] Jeff Goldblum,[64] Javier Bardem,[65][66] Léa Seydoux,[67] Samantha Morton,[68] Cherry Jones,[69] Wallace Shawn,[70] Alan Alda,[71] Gina Gershon,[72] Larry David,[73] Richard Kind,[74] and Scarlett Johansson[75] came out in his defense.
[citation needed] Author Bret Easton Ellis alleged that two of his former partners had attended underage sex parties hosted by Singer and fellow director Roland Emmerich.
[96] In 2004, actor and producer Brian Peck was convicted of a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and was required to register as a sex offender.
Villard was accused in 2001 and charged after searches of his home uncovered thousands of photographs of boys in skimpy bathing suits posed in sexually suggestive positions.
[101] In 2016, acting coach and actor Cameron Thor, best known for playing Lewis Dodgson in the 1993 film Jurassic Park, was sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting 13-year-old Jordyn Ladell in 2009.
[106] Feldman had already participated in the 2014 documentary An Open Secret, which exhibited the sexual abuse committed during the casting and recruitment of young actors in movies or commercials by people in the film industry.
The documentary also makes multiple references to the accusations against Singer,[107] and the opinions of the children's parents, who at some point saw themselves as needing to "trust" the agents for the means to improve their economic condition.
[108][109] In 2019, Rob Cohen (director of xXx and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) was accused by an unnamed woman of getting her drunk and sexually assaulting her while she was unconscious in a hotel room.
[124] In the months leading up to the release of his longtime passion project Megalopolis in 2024, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was accused by The Guardian of having kissed and touched female extras in ways people found inappropriate.
In October 2016, following the premiere of the movie The Birth of a Nation (2016), its director and lead actor, Nate Parker, was singled out for a 1999 case in which he and his friend Jean Celestin (who co-wrote the film) were accused of drugging and sexually abusing an 18-year-old woman.
[136] According to the women's reports, Weinstein invited young actresses or models to a hotel room or office on the pretext of discussing their careers, and then demanded massages or sexual intercourse.
In an audio recording revealed during the ensuing scandal, Weinstein can be heard pressing model Ambra Gutierrez to accompany him to take a shower and, after her refusal, he insists, "I will not do anything to you, I swear it for my children.
"[137][138] Among the actresses who claim to have suffered harassment or rape by Weinstein are Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvino, Paz de la Huerta, Annabella Sciorra and Gwyneth Paltrow.
[149] Technical staff from the Netflix television series House of Cards, in which Spacey starred, declared that the actor frequently harassed men during filming.
He was also accused of sexually harassing young men at the Old Vic, where he worked as artistic director from 2003 to 2015, with one alleged victim stating, "It seems that it only took being a male under 30 to make Mr. Spacey feel free to touch us.
[155] The accusations against Harvey Weinstein unleashed a campaign through the hashtag Me Too, with which different people joined the list of victims of sexual abuse by actors, directors and producers.
later confirmed the allegations against him - that he had forced several women to watch him masturbate[156] - and apologized, while Ratner denied the claims of sexual harassment made against him by actresses such as Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge.
[8][180] The participation of some attendees was criticized, including Streep herself and Oprah Winfrey, who, after receiving the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award, dedicated her speech to the victims of such aggressions.
"[183][184] In an interview with Natalie Morales on the Today Show in September 2018, actor Sean Penn criticized the #MeToo movement as one "that gets glommed onto in great stridency and rage and without nuance," and that served to "divide men and women".
"[186][187] At the 85th Academy Awards nominations ceremony on January 10, 2013, host Seth MacFarlane joked when announcing the Best Supporting Actress nominees: "Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.
"[190] The psychology center Cepsim in Madrid, Spain described in summary the profile of the abuser: "They are men or women with a lot of power who use it with vulnerable people to get what they want.
