The Columbus Dispatch

Stars Takei, Dreyfuss respond to charges from encounters in ’80s

- By Leanne Italie

NEW YORK — George Takei took to Twitter on Saturday to deny groping a male model and Richard Dreyfuss said he never exposed himself to a female writer helping him with a TV script, both back in the 1980s.

Takei, the 80-year-old “Star Trek” icon, said in a series of tweets that events described by Scott R. Brunton in The Hollywood Reporter “simply did not occur,” and he does not remember ever knowing Brunton.

“Right now it is a he said/he said situation, over alleged events nearly 40 years ago. But those that know me understand that nonconsens­ual acts are so antithetic­al to my values and my practices, the very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful,” Takei tweeted.

Dreyfuss, meanwhile, told the New York magazine blog Vulture he flirted with and even kissed Los Angeles writer Jessica Teich over several years but thought it was a “consensual seduction ritual.” The fact that “I did not get it,” he said, “makes me reassess every relationsh­ip I have ever thought was playful and mutual.”

Teich told Vulture she first met Dreyfuss at a theater where she worked and they spent hours together over several years after she was hired to develop a script for an ABC comedy special. The actor, she said, made continual, overt and lewd comments and invitation­s but she never told anyone. Dreyfuss, now 70, called Teich a friend of more than 30 years.

Brunton told The Hollywood Reporter he was 23 when he first met Takei at a bar. After some time, Takei invited him to dinner and the theater, Brunton said. He said the two went to Takei’s condo for drinks after.

He said he grew dizzy and “must have passed out,” awaking to his pants around his ankles and Takei groping him. He said he extricated himself and left.

Meanwhile, “Supergirl” and “Arrow” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has been suspended by Warners Bros. Television Group pending an investigat­ion of sexual harassment and inappropri­ate touching accusation­s made by 19 former and current employees.

The accusation­s first were reported by Variety, which did not identify the 15 women and four men who accused Kreisberg.

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