Hollywood director accused of harassing dozens of women
DOZENS of women have come forward to claim they were sexually harassed by James Toback, a Hollywood director and writer, who they accused of luring them to fake meetings promising fame and fortune.
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker, who this year directed Sienna Miller in The Private Life of a Modern Woman, is accused of approaching young women on the streets of New York offering to make them a star.
Now 72, the married father of one would arrange “auditions” in hotel rooms, movie trailers and public parks. Then, it is claimed, the encounters would turn sexual.
The Los Angeles Times spoke to 38 women who said they were victims, and 31 of them went on the record.
Mr Toback’s film credits include an Oscar nomination for writing Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty. He also wrote The Gambler, the critically acclaimed 1974 film starring James Caan. His most recent project starring Sienna Miller, premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Yesterday, he was accused of using his success to prey on women in their early 20s, often students, approaching them in public places like Central Park. He would arrange to meet them privately for meetings or auditions, the Los Angeles Times reported. But he used the opportunity to harass those women, at first asking intimate questions about their sex life before exposing himself.
Adrienne Lavalley, an actress, told the newspaper of a disturbing 2008 encounter with Mr Toback in a hotel room.
She said: “I felt like a prostitute, an utter disappointment.” Starr Rinaldi claimed she was pursued by Mr Toback in Central Park 15 years ago. “In a weird sense, I thought, ‘This is a test of whether I’m a real artist and serious about acting’,” she said.
Louise Post, a musician, said: “Going to his apartment has been a source of shame for the past 30 years, that I allowed myself to be so gullible.”
Chantal Cousineau was 19 when she met Mr Toback for an audition for Harvard Man in 2001. The encounter began in a restaurant and ended in his room. When she reached the door, he told her, ‘Calm down, you’ve got the part’, as though the whole thing had been a test, she said. Later, during filming, she said he pleasured himself just feet away from her. “I felt so violated,” she said. When approached about the allegations, Mr Toback denied meeting any of the women or if he did, it was for “five minutes”.
Meanwhile, Benny Hill and Michael Winner were under scrutiny after women came forward to make accusations. Debbie Arnold, 62, an Eastenders star, said she met the late Mr Winner at his house in the Eighties. She said: “He asked me to take off my top, then my bra and told me to massage my breasts. I thought I was hearing things.” Hazel O’connor, star of Breaking Glass, claimed Hill, who died in 1992, tried to force himself on her in 1976 when she was 21.
“He tried to snog me. I pushed him away and got out of there,” she said.