Actress in studio chief sex scandal given top role in OJ movie – by her director boyfriend
THE British actress linked to the downfall of one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood is at the centre of another movie industry controversy. Charlotte Kirk, 26, was given the major role of Nicole Brown Simpson – the murdered wife of former American footballer O J Simpson – in a film about the couple. The film’s director is Miss Kirk’s ex-lover – and he has now acknowledged the relationship influenced his decision to give her the part. The admission by Briton Joshua Newton, who had a five-year relationship with Miss Kirk, comes only weeks after Warner Bros chief executive Kevin Tsujihara was forced to quit after revelations of a ‘casting couch’ affair with her. Texts suggested he had tried to advance her career following a sexual rendezvous in a Los Angeles hotel in 2013. Miss Kirk’s relationship with Newton may have overlapped with the affair with married Tsujihara, 54, in 2013.
Newton defended his casting decision for Nicole and O J in a statement. ‘I have been asked on more than one occasion whether I cast her because we were in a relationship,’ he said.
‘It would be difficult to argue that didn’t influence me. Artistically, however, I did make precisely the right choice.’
He said Miss Kirk, from Kent, bears an ‘uncanny resemblance’ to Nicole and added: ‘Yes, I did give her a big break, but why wouldn’t I for someone who was perfect for the role and I loved?’
After her fling with Tsujihara, Miss Kirk won small parts in the Warner Bros films Ocean’s 8 and How To Be Single.
She insisted after his resignation: ‘It was not casting couch sex. I thought I was just having sex with a man I fancied. Because I am a young woman, I am accused of being a slut and a conniving, calculating one at that.’
Nicole and O J is due to be released next year.