38 WOMEN CALL DIRECTOR A PERV
#HIM TOO.
Oscar-nominated writer and director James Toback was outed Sunday as Tinseltown’s latest mega-perv amid the ongoing fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The filmmaker behind the semi-autobiographical 1987 romantic comedy “The Pick-up Artist,” lured women into disgusting encounters by presenting himself as a gatekeeper to Hollywood stardom, according to a new report.
More than three dozen women told The Los Angeles Times that Toback, 72, duped them into meetings in which he’d pleasure himself, sometimes by grinding against them.
Toback had a modus operandi corroborated by many of the 38 women who spoke out. He allegedly approached women — often in Manhattan — touting his Oscar nomination for writing 1991’s “Bugsy” starring Warren Beatty.
Toback also noted that he directed the films “Black and White” and “Two Girls and a Guy,” and that Robert Downey Jr. — who starred in “The Pick-up Artist” — was a close friend, the women told the newspaper.
“In a weird sense, I thought, ‘This is a test of whether I’m a real artist and serious about acting,’ ” aspiring actress Starr Rinaldi told the newspaper.
Toback approached her in Central Park about 15 years ago, she said.
“He always wanted me to read for him in a hotel or come back to his apartment, like, ‘How serious are you about your craft?’” she said.
A singer and guitarist for the band Veruca Salt, Louise Post, said Toback had told her in 1987 “he’d love nothing more than to masturbate while looking into my eyes.”
Toback, whose most recent film “The Private Life of a Modern Woman” stars Sienna Miller, told The Los Angeles Times he had no recollection of any of the women who alleged repugnant encounters with him.
Several said he would ask women to twist his nipples and stare into his eyes while he touched himself.
Toback also said it was “biologically impossible” for him to have had such encounters in the last 22 years due to diabetes and a heart condition.
“The act of effectively selling a role for sexual favors could only be done by someone with no regard whatsoever of the quality of his work,” he said in a separate denial to Variety.
This was not the first time Toback has been described as a creep. Spy magazine addressed his behavior in 1989. Gawker reported on his reputation for hitting on “young, random women.” Amy Schumer tweeted in 2014 that she “once flew cross-country sitting next to James Toback” and that he made a disgusting comment to her.
Many of Toback’s accusers shared their stories on social media using #metoo, a hashtag that has become popular following reports of film producer Harvey Weinstein’s decades of harassment and assaults of women. Recent stories in The New York Times and The New Yorker featured actresses, models and many others who crossed paths with Weinstein (photo), sharing stories of him groping them, pleasuring himself and asking for nude massages.