Dreyfuss groped me
FAN WHO SAW HIM ON B’WAY HAS PIX TO PROVE IT
WHEN TWO Long Island friends went to see Richard Dreyfuss in the 2004 Broadway production of “Sly Fox,” they weren’t expecting such a close encounter with the Oscar-winner.
But after the show, they were invited to visit the actor backstage, where he allegedly pawed at the women and “grabbed” one on her backside, they told the Daily News.
In a series of photos shared exclusively with The News, Dreyfuss is seen squeezing one of the women on her buttock, and then wrapping his arms around her waist so one hand is touching her breasts while the other is extending down toward her crotch.
“The first thing he did was give me a hug, and he stuck his hand almost in the crack of my butt. He didn’t even give me any warning,” the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Beth, said.
“Then he turned me around, and he grabbed me by the boob. And he grabbed right above my private area, lower than my midriff. Like he was tickling me. I was giggling, but not in a happy way. I was so nervous,” Beth, 48, recalled.
“I was so uncomfortable. It was such a weird, awkward feeling.”
The second woman, Susan, said Dreyfuss ambushed her with a kiss on her cheek — another moment caught on camera.
“He kissed me without permission. I’m smiling in the photo, but it was a nervous smile. I didn’t know how to react. I was so surprised,” Susan, 52, said.
“I just remember it was creepy, weird and awkward. We were excited to go in there and meet him, and it wasn’t what we expected. It was a shock. I was surprised, I didn’t expect him to be that type of person. He was on both of us.”
Attempts to reach Dreyfuss directly and through his agent were not successful Monday.
Beth and Susan both recalled seeing the play and being approached by someone at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre who offered to escort them backstage and introduce them to the show’s star.
“I’m not the type to get starstruck,” Beth said, recalling the moment she walked into Dreyfuss’ dressing room for the unexpected introduction.
“I remember he was sweaty and talking fast. I couldn’t understand why he was being so touchy with people he’d never met before. And he was saying really weird, awkward stuff. He told me I had nice lips. Susan was really grossed out,” she said.
Beth said Dreyfuss asked the women to stay and hang out with him, but they “made some excuse and left.” Beth, an entrepreneur and mother of two, said she finally decided to step forward after the #MeToo movement created a more hospitable environment for women to talk about predatory behavior by powerful men.
She was also upset when Dreyfuss denied exposing himself to writer Jessica Teich in 1987, a story that broke in November.
The actor told New York magazine’s blog Vulture that he recalled flirting with Teich over the years in exchanges he thought were consensual.