H ollywood director ‘harassed dozens of women’

DOZENS of women have come forward to claim they were sexually harassed by James Toback, an Oscar-nominated Hollywood director and writer, whom they accused of luring them to fake meetings promising fame and fortune.

The filmmaker, who this year directed Sienna Miller in ‘The Private Life of a Modern Woman’, is accused of approaching young women on the streets of New York offering to make them a star.

Now 72, the married father of one would arrange “auditions” in hotel rooms, movie trailers and public parks. Then, it is claimed, the encounters would turn sexual.

The ‘Los Angeles Times’ spoke to 38 women who said they were victims, and 31 of them went on the record.

Mr Toback’s film credits include an Oscar nomination for writing ‘Bugsy’, starring Warren Beatty. He also wrote ‘The Gambler’, the critically acclaimed 1974 film starring James Caan.

Yesterday, he was accused of using his success to prey on women in their early 20s, often students, approaching them in public places. He would arrange to meet them privately for meetings or auditions, the ‘LA Times’ reported. But he used the opportunity to harass those women, at first asking intimate questions about their sex life before exposing himself.

Actress Adrienne LaValley told the newspaper of a 2008 encounter with Mr Toback in a hotel room. She said: “I felt like a prostitute, an utter disappointment.” Starr Rinaldi claimed she was pursued by Mr Toback in Central Park 15 years ago. “In a weird sense, I thought, ‘This is a test of whether I’m a real artist and serious about acting’,” she said.

Louise Post, a musician, said: “Going to his apartment has been a source of shame for the past 30 years, that I allowed myself to be so gullible.”

Chantal Cousineau was 19 when she met Mr Toback for an audition for ‘Harvard Man’ in 2001. The encounter began in a restaurant and ended in his room. When she reached the door, he told her, ‘Calm down, you’ve got the part’, as though the whole thing had been a test, she said. Later, during filming, she said he pleasured himself just feet away from her. “I felt so violated,” she said.

Mr Toback denied meeting any of the women or if he did, it was for “five minutes”.