As he battles rape claims, how Mr Big’s former lover took out a restraining order. . .
Just as sex And the City aficionados were getting over the sudden demise of ‘Mr Big’ in a reboot of the TV series, they have been confronted with a far more harrowing, real-life plot twist. Indeed, this is a tale of sex and two cities; startlingly similar sexual assaults alleged to have taken place 11 years and 2,000 miles apart, involving star-struck female fans and the actor Chris Noth, who played Big, Carrie Bradshaw’s on/off lover.
He faces graphic claims that he raped two young women: one in Los Angeles in 2004; the other in New York in 2015.
the women, known only by pseudonyms and who reportedly do not know each other, say they came forward after the new series (titled And Just Like that) triggered painful memories.
Noth has ‘categorically’ denied the allegations, insisting sex with both women had been consensual.
However, his denials — and the services of a premium firm of Hollywood lawyers — have not stopped a trickle of unwelcome developments for the 67-year-old actor.
On thursday, Peloton, the exercise bike manufacturer, removed a video advertisement starring Noth from its social media pages.
the tongue-in-cheek advert had been made after Big suffered a heart attack and ‘died’ while on a Peloton in the first episode of the new series, prompting a drop in the company’s share price. A company spokesperson said: ‘As we seek to learn more, we have stopped promoting this video and archived related social posts.’
As for Noth’s own share price, it took a further knock yesterday when it resurfaced that model Beverly Johnson, his girlfriend from 1988 until 1993, had taken out a restraining order against him in 1995.
she allegedly told police in Beverly Hills that she had been afraid for herself and her teenage daughter after she and Noth split.
In court papers, she reportedly accused him of beating her, threatening to kill her and her dog, and phoning her up to 25 times a day. However, no charges were ever filed against him.
UsINg social media, another actress has claimed Noth was ‘consistently sexually inappropriate’ with a woman she worked alongside more than a decade ago at a New York nightclub he co-owned.
Zoe Lister-Jones, 39, also claimed that while appearing in Law & Order, the 1990s TV series that propelled Noth to fame, he had ‘sniffed her neck’ when he was drunk on set and whispered: ‘You smell good’.
Lister-Jones described him as a ‘sexual predator’ who swigged beer in between takes.
Noth, who shares many of Big’s bon viveur traits — including a love of whisky and cigars — has previously admitted to a ‘reckless’ youth in Connecticut and California, where he was often in trouble for vandalism, drugs and joy-riding. He blames the death of his father in a car accident in 1966, when he was 11, for leaving ‘a crater in my life’.
Noth cites a fascination with Laurence Olivier and British theatre for inspiring his acting career.
However, it was TV rather than the theatre or film, that made his name. In Law & Order, he played fiery, womanising police officer Mike Logan until he was sacked in 1995 after falling out with its creator.
there have been roles in several obscure films, including the lowbudget 2016 drama White girl, as a lawyer who rapes an intoxicated young woman, and bit parts in box-office hits including Castaway with tom Hanks in 2000.
the two women who accuse Noth of rape, ‘Zoe’ [not Ms Lister-Jones], 40, and ‘Lily’, 31, approached the Hollywood
Reporter (THR), the entertainment industry bible, separately and months apart.
Noth, married since 2012 to Canadian actress tara Wilson with whom he has two sons, questions why his accusers have waited until now to come forward.
‘the accusations against me made by individuals I met years . . . ago are categorically false,’ he said in a statement. ‘these stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago: no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. the encounters were consensual.’
In efforts to verify the women’s claims, THR has spoken to their friends and work colleagues.
‘Zoe’ says she had moved to Los Angeles, aged 22, in 2004 to take a job at a ‘high-profile firm’ of which Noth, then 49, was a client. she says he would flirt and leave messages on her work phone — claims confirmed by her former boss, who observed: ‘this was peak sex And the City. He was like a god to us.’
Noth had an apartment in West Hollywood and according to ‘Zoe’s’ account, he invited her to use the pool there. In August that year she went with a friend to meet him.
they sat in the hot tub where he peppered her with questions about her university course. she says the 6ft 2in actor loaned her a book, and when she returned it to his apartment he kissed her and she ‘tentatively kissed back’, but then said she was leaving.
Noth allegedly moved her towards the bed so she was facing a mirror, pulled off her shorts and bikini bottoms and raped her.
‘It was very painful and I yelled: “stop!” she said. ‘And he didn’t. I said: “Can you at least get a condom?” and he laughed at me.’
When it was over, she says she ‘got out of there’. the friend who had gone with Zoe to meet Noth at the pool, and who is now a child psychologist in Boston, took her to Cedarssinai Hospital where Zoe said she had been assaulted.
‘I had stitches. two police officers came. I wouldn’t say who it was,’ she told THR, claiming she feared getting the sack.
Zoe’s former boss confirmed to THR that she learned of the attack later that day, but, at Zoe’s request, didn’t take the matter further.
Zoe had several months counselling at a rape crisis centre which its staff have confirmed.
she says she came forward after watching her mother die of cancer recently and resolving not to be ‘haunted at the end of my life’.
‘Lily’, the second accuser, was 25 and working at a New York nightclub, No 8, in 2015 when she met Noth, then 60. she admits to being ‘truly star-struck’.
‘He was hitting on me, for sure. I was flattered,’ she told THR. ‘I knew he was married, which is shameful of me to admit.’
He invited her to a tuscan restaurant, Il Cantinori, where Carrie had celebrated her 35th birthday in sex And the City.
A close friend, Alex, told her not to go. Lily countered that Noth had been ‘nice and respectful when I met him at the club... it’s just dinner’.
But it wasn’t even dinner. After they sat at the bar chatting and she drank too much wine, he suggested a nightcap at his apartment, where she ‘cautiously entertained’ his romantic overtures.
‘He kept trying and trying and trying, and I should have said no more firmly and left,’ she said. ‘the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants [trousers] and he was standing in front of me.’ she says he then performed an indecent act on her.
then, ‘he was having sex with me from the back in a chair’, she continued. ‘We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened.’
Afterwards, she said she felt ‘totally violated’.
HeR friend Alex recalls Lily being ‘pretty hysterical’ when she rang her from a taxi that night but didn’t want to go to the police. By the next day, she was saying she had ‘over-reacted’.
THR says it has reviewed text messages Noth and Lily exchanged in March and April 2015. In one, he said: ‘By the way I have to ask, did you enjoy our night last week? I thought it was a lot of fun but I wasn’t quite sure how you felt.’
Lily replied: ‘Hmm ... I certainly enjoyed your company. great conversation. Not to go into specifics over text message, but I did feel slightly used.’
Noth reportedly mentioned hoping to meet again for dinner or drinks, but Lily rebuffed him.
‘Oh mysterious one . . . where did you go,’ he once texted her.
For an actor principally famous for playing the romantic male lead in the iconic ‘gal pal’ series, the allegations are particularly damaging. Asked once if he enjoyed playing ‘mean jerk guys’, he replied: ‘If they’re written well, they’re the most fun’.
He’s unlikely to be relishing the script of this latest drama.