Director accused of harassment
Add another Hollywood figure to the list of men in power accused of sexually harassing women.
Writer/director James Toback, 72, has been called out by 38 women, many giving graphic details of their alleged encounters in a story published early Sunday by the Los Angeles Times.
The allegations, which Toback denied to the Times, arrive as the Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to roil Hollywood. Weinstein, co-founder of The Weinstein Company, is in treatment after accusations he sexually harassed and assaulted Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong’o and dozens more.
Toback may not be a familiar name to many, but he is behind movies such as 1974’s The Gambler (starring James Caan and Paul Sorvino), 1987’s The Pick-up Artist (Robert Downey Jr., Molly Ringwald), 1991’s Bugsy (Warren Beatty, Annette Bening) and The Private Life of a Modern Woman (Sienna Miller, Alec Baldwin), which premiered last month in Italy at Venice Film Festival.
USA TODAY reached out to Toback’s representative for a response but did not hear back from the filmmaker before deadline.
The Times says 31 of the women spoke on the record about their encounters with Toback, which go back decades. The Weinstein scandal prompted some of them to come forward.
A 1989 article in Spy magazine noted that Toback often would scout for potential actresses to work on his projects at a market on New York’s Upper West Side. Spy spoke to 13 women who gave various accounts of questionable encounters with Toback. The more recent Times piece said he would approach women in Cen- tral Park, standing in line at the bank or at the drug store.
Among Toback accusers is Louise Post, a guitarist and vocalist for the band Veruca Salt, who met Toback while attending college in 1987. On Monday, as part of the Twitter hashtag #MeToo campaign, the band’s account tweeted: “Us too: by bosses, boyfriends, male babysitters, taxi drivers, strangers and movie director/pig #jamestoback #metoo.”
“He told me he’d love nothing more than to masturbate while looking into my eyes,” Post told the Times. “Going to his apartment has been the source of shame for the past 30 years, that I allowed myself to be so gullible.”
Actress Echo Danon told the Times that in the writer’s trailer on the set of 1999’s Black and White, Toback put his hands on her thighs, and told her, “If you look into my eyes and pinch my nipples, I’m going to come in my pants right now.” After she resisted, he backed down. It’s an account similar to an allegation detailed in the earlier Spy piece.
Asia Argento, one of Weinstein’s accusers, commended Danon for speaking out. She tweeted Sunday: “My friend @echodanon is one of the #heroes who survived the attack of deplorable #JamesToback and with her courage exposed his horrific M.O.”
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn posted Sunday afternoon on Facebook that he’s been told of Toback’s alleged behavior since the 1990s. “This dude was EVERYWHERE,” Gunn writes. “I have personally met at least FIFTEEN WOMEN, probably more, who say that he’s accosted them in NYC.”
Gunn says he didn’t witness any of the incidents: “I knew it was their choice whether or not they wanted to come forward publicly, but I let them know I would have their backs if they did.”
Gunn concluded that’s why he decided to post: “This is me doing my best to fulfill that promise.”