More allegations against Ratner
Actress Ellen Page says the director crudely outed her as gay when she was 18.
Filmmaker Brett Ratner is facing more allegations of inappropriate behavior on set after actress Ellen Page said Friday that he crudely outed her as gay at a meetand-greet for the cast and crew of “X-Men: The Last Stand” when she was 18 years old.
The Oscar nominee, who came out publicly as a lesbian in 2014, said Friday on Facebook that the director made a profane comment suggesting that a woman 10 years her senior — who was standing right there — have sex with Page “to make her realize she’s gay.”
At the time, the “Juno” actress, now 30, had not yet come out even to herself, she said.
“I knew I was gay, but did not know, so to speak. I felt violated when this happened. I looked down at my feet, didn’t say a word and watched as no one else did either.”
The “public, aggressive outing” left her with “longstanding feelings of shame, one of the most destructive results of homophobia,” she wrote.
Ratner’s attorney did not respond immediately Friday to a request for comment. Last week, six women accused the director of sexual harassment; Ratner’s attorney disputed those accounts in a 10-page letter to The Times.
Two other women have also publicly accused Ratner of misconduct.
Beverly Hills police investigated Ratner and music mogul Russell Simmons in 2001 after a woman said she was a victim of sexual battery, but the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office found insufficient evidence to press charges.
The investigation was first reported by Variety on Thursday.
Lt. Elisabeth Albanese confirmed that on Nov. 3, 2001, at 4:45 a.m., a 29-yearold woman showed up at the Beverly Hills Police Department to file a report alleging that she was held against her will “by two males who both unlawfully touched her.”
The woman said the incident occurred between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. at Ratner’s Hilhaven Lodge, his home with a storied Hollywood pedigree.
Last week, Warner Bros. cut ties with Ratner and his production company, RatPac Entertainment. The Burbank studio will not renew its production deal with Ratner, and the fate of his company’s $450-million cofinancing agreement beyond 2018 remains unclear.
One of Ratner’s accusers, Melanie Kohler, posted on Facebook that she had been raped by Ratner. He has since sued her for defamation.
Variety reported that Ratner’s civil attorney, Martin Singer, strongly disputed that a police investigation occurred and threatened to sue the entertainment trade magazine. He later said that the incident involved another person, and that Ratner was not implicated, Variety reported. In a letter to The Times, Andrew Brettler, an attorney in Singer’s firm, challenged the account in Variety. “Mr. Singer felt confident that he would have known if Mr. Ratner had been arrested, as Variety initially alleged. That is the precise allegation that Mr. Singer ‘strongly disputed,’ ” Brettler said.
Harland Braun, Ratner’s criminal attorney, told Variety that both Simmons and Ratner cooperated with police, but that the allegations were not true.
Braun described Ratner and Simmons’ account to Variety by saying: “We know her. She came to our house. Nothing happened. She’s making up a story.”
In a statement to Variety that was also sent to The Times, Def Jam Recordings co-founder Simmons said:
“This is an important and critical time for the empowerment of women and men who have been harassed and I fully support the light and healing that comes from this process. I have been a public figure for all of my adult life. And when you are in that arena over decades, you can find yourself in a position where you are vulnerable and susceptible to claims that are untrue,” Simmons said.
He praised the courage of women who are coming forward. “We all should thank them with complete gratitude. Even if there is collateral damage against me, I support it. I am a yogi and an activist and the father of two daughters who mean everything to me. I want them to live in a world where harassment is not the norm,” Simmons said.
In her Facebook post, which uses blunt language, Page called for men who have abused others from positions of power to be held accountable for their behavior, and for what she called a self-perpetuating status quo to end.
“I want them to sit and think about who they are without their lawyers, their millions, their fancy cars, houses upon houses, their ‘playboy’ status and swagger,” she wrote.
“What I want the most, is for this to result in healing for the victims. For Hollywood to wake up and start taking some responsibility for how we all have played a role in this. I want us to reflect on this endemic issue and how this power dynamic of abuse leads to an enormous amount of suffering.”