38 Women Have Accused Hollywood Director James Toback Of Sexual Assault

Thirty-eight women have come forward to accuse Hollywood director and screenwriter James Toback of sexual assault in a new Los Angeles Times report,

DIRECTOR JAMES TOBACK ACCUSED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

The newspaper interviewed the women, and most spoke on the record. They said that most meetings with Toback were set up as professional interviews or auditions, but that they would quickly become sexual. The director, 71, has denied all claims against him.

Specifically, Toback claims he never met any of the women, and if he had, it was not for more than a few minutes. In addition, the director says for the past 22 years, it has been “biologically impossible” for him to even partake in the activities described by the women, due to his diabetes and a heart condition. He declined to say more on that subject.

Three of Toback’s accusers appears on NBC’s Nightly News this past weekend. Sari Kamin, Starr Rinaldi and Terri Conn described their various incidents with the man. “He came over to me when I was sitting in a chair and he started rubbing his groin against me,” one woman shared.

Toback has 17 screenplay/writing credits to his name, and 12 more for directing. His first film, The Gambler, came in 1974 and starred James Caan. He is also responsible for Fingers with Harvey Keitel, The Pick-Up Artist with Robert Downey Jr. and Dennis Hopper, and Bugsy with Warren Beatty. Toback was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenwriting for the latter. Most recently, he wrote and directed The Private Life of a Modern Woman with Sienna Miller and Alec Baldwin.

These allegations come in the wake of the New York Times exposé on Harvey Weinstein. The number of women who have come forward about his involvement in sexual assault has climbed to over 40. That scandal also led to the trending hashtag #metoo, which women (and some men) are using to show just how many people have been sexually harassed in their lifetimes.

Despite the growing evidence against him, Weinstein has “unequivocally denied all allegations of rape.”