ADD HOFFMAN TO ‘SORRY’ MEN LIST.
SEX ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS CONTINUE TO ENSNARE ACTORS AND POLITICIANS
MICHAEL FALLON
Britain’s defence minister resigned Wednesday after allegations emerged about inappropriate sexual behaviour. In a resignation letter to Prime Minister Theresa May he said that his “previous conduct ... may have fallen below the high standards that we require of the Armed Forces.” Fallon, 65, was first elected to Parliament in 1983 and has been defence secretary since 2014. A newspaper reported last weekend that Fallon had repeatedly touched a journalist’s knee at a function in 2002. The journalist in question said she had shrugged off the incident, but reports suggested that other allegations about Fallon might soon emerge.
DAMIAN GREEN
Britain’s de facto deputy prime minister was accused by writer and academic Kate Maltby of touching her knee in 2015 — “a fleeting hand against my knee — so brief it was almost deniable” she told The Times newspaper. She said he later sent her a “suggestive” text message after she was pictured wearing a corset in a newspaper. Green said, “This untrue allegation has come as a complete shock and is deeply hurtful, especially from someone I considered a personal friend.” May has ordered an investigation to establish the facts.
BRETT RATNER
Six women, including actress Olivia Munn, accused the film director — who directed the “Rush Hour” film series, “Red Dragon,” “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “Tower Heist” — of sexual assault or misconduct in a Los Angeles Times report. Ratner’s lawyer issued a statement Wednesday in which he said the director “vehemently denies the outrageous derogatory allegations” and is “confident that his name will be cleared once the current media frenzy dies down and people can objectively evaluate the nature of these claims.”
DUSTIN HOFFMAN
The Oscar winner came forward to apologize for allegedly sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern in 1985. Writer Anna Graham Hunter alleged in a column in The Hollywood Reporter that the now 80-year-old actor groped her on the set of TV movie “Death of a Salesman” and “talked about sex to me and in front of me.” Hoffman issued a statement apologizing for “anything I might have done that could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.”
KEVIN SPACEY
Mexican actor Roberto Cavazos wrote on his Facebook page that he encountered Spacey at the bar of London’s Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was artistic director from 2004-15, and the actor tried to fondle him against his will. “It was more common for this guy, when he was in the bar of his theatre, grabbing whoever caught his attention,” Cavazos wrote. “I didn’t stand for it, but I know some people who were afraid to stop it.” Earlier this week, Spacey responded to an allegation by actor Anthony Rapp that he made a sexual advance on him in 1986 when he was 14 by saying he didn’t remember the encounter but added, “I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour.”
MICHAEL ORESKES
Oreskes was ousted as National Public Radio’s news chief following accusations by two women that he suddenly kissed them while they were discussing job prospects when he was Washington bureau chief at The New York Times in the 1990s. Oreskes, who had been placed on leave by NPR following Tuesday’s report in the Washington Post, said he was deeply sorry to the people he hurt.