James Toback, Hollywood Director, Accused Of Sexual Harassment By Over 30 Women
At least 38 women have accused director and screenwriter James Toback of sexual harassment spanning over three decades, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Toback’s accusations follow on the heels of investigations by the New York Times and the New Yorker that revealed allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Several of the women who came forward to tell their story about harassment to the Los Angeles Times and on social media referenced Weinstein and the bravery of the women who came out about what he had put them through.
Toback, 72, has directed films such as “Bugsy” starring Warren Beaty and “Black and White” starring Robert Downey Jr.
Toback’s predatory nature was first written about by the defunct Spy Magazine in 1989 and more recently by the now defunct website Gawker. Toback would approach women in New York and ask them about acting and whether they wanted a role in one of his movies. Toback, not as famous as someone like Weinstein or one of his stars, would carry around things like DVDs of his movies or newspaper clipping of his work to show women who he was.
From there women alleged that Toback would invite them somewhere private, where the conversation would turn sexual. Toback would then ask women to get naked or perform a sexual act on the director as part of a “test” to see how vulnerable they could be on camera.
“The way he presented it, it was like, ‘This is how things are done,’” said actress Adrienne LaValley to the Los Angeles Time about a 2008 encounter when she said Toback attempted to rub his crotch on her. “I felt like a prostitute, an utter disappointment to myself, my parents, my friends. And I deserved not to tell anyone.”
Toback denied the allegations to the Los Angeles Times.
Toback’s most recent film “The Private Life of a Modern Woman,” starring Sienna Miller and Alec Baldwin premiered in September at the Venice Film Festival.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.