Names and faces
■ Actor Chris Noth has been accused of sexually assaulting two women in separate encounters that took place in 2004 and 2015, according to a report Thursday in The Hollywood Reporter. The women’s identities were withheld by The Hollywood Reporter in order to protect their privacy, said the trade publication, which used pseudonyms for them instead. Noth, 67, who starred in “Sex and the City” and appears briefly in its newly released sequel, “And Just Like That …,” said in a statement that the encounters were consensual. “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. 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,” Noth said in the statement. “I don’t know for certain why (the allegations) are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women,” he said. The publication said that the two women reached out independently and months apart. One, using the pseudonym Zoe, told the Reporter that the revival of Noth’s “Sex and the City” character, a man-about-town nicknamed Mr. Big, “set something off in me” and prompted her to go public with “who he is.” Zoe, now 40, alleges she was assaulted in Noth’s Los Angeles apartment in 2004, when she was 22. The other woman, called Lily, now 31 and a journalist, said she met Noth in 2015 when she was 25 and working as a server at a now-closed New York nightclub. She recounted feeling “violated” when Noth abruptly initiated sex. Neither the Los Angeles Police Department nor the special victims bureau of the Los Angeles sheriff’s department have open investigations involving Noth, spokesman said.
■ Rock icon Rod Stewart and his son have pleaded guilty to battery in an assault case stemming from a New Year’s Eve 2019 altercation with a security guard who wouldn’t let them into a private party at an exclusive hotel in Palm Beach, Fla. Court records released Friday show that the singer and his son Sean Stewart entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor simple battery charges. Stewart’s attorney, Guy Fronstin, said in a statement that since no one was injured in the incident, “Sir Rod Stewart decided to enter a plea to avoid the inconvenience and unnecessary burden on the court and the public that a high profile proceeding would cause.” The plea agreement, dated and signed Monday, means that Stewart, 76, and his son, 41, won’t have to appear in court. Neither will do any jail time or be required to pay fines and won’t be placed on probation, Fronstin said. The raspy-voiced Stewart is a British member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016. His hits include “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” “You Wear It Well,” “Gasoline Alley,” “Every Picture Tells a Story,” “You’re In My Heart,” “Hot Legs” and, probably his best-known song, “Maggie May.”