‘His slave’: Studio lawyer says boss harassed, assaulted her
NEW YORK — A former lawyer at the studio behind “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” movies said a powerful boss she once viewed as a father figure demanded she be his slave and subjected her to nonconsensual sexual contact. She said she stayed quiet about it for years because she feared losing her job and never working in entertainment again.
Wendy Jaffe, the former executive vice president of legal affairs at Lionsgate, told the Associated Press that her mind often shifted to “minimizing damage” and a mode she described as “spinning plates” to quickly come up with ways to stop general counsel Wayne Levin without humiliating him.
“I remember feeling like my head was spinning, and I’m sort of outside myself and I immediately went to the mode of spinning plates,” Jaffe said, describing one of the earliest alleged encounters, in 2002.
“I started to question: ‘How could this be happening? What did I do to make him think this was going to be OK?’ ” she continued, echoing the early reactions of many women who’ve spoken up about sexual misconduct since the #MeToo movement exploded last October. “And if I embarrass him, I’m in trouble. My career is over.”
Jaffe, 46, finally complained about Levin, 55, as she left Lionsgate in 2016 and has only told her story publicly in recent days, first to The Wall Street Journal and then in an oncamera interview with the AP. Lionsgate agreed to pay Jaffe a $2.5 million settlement.
Jaffe said her departure came with top executives making false and disparaging statements about her to prevent her from finding another job.
Levin’s lawyer said they’re not discussing Jaffe’s allegations in the press.