Dustin Hoffman Is Accused Of Sexual Harassment — Again!
Dustin Hoffman has been hit with sexual harassment allegations again.
In an explosive piece for the Hollywood Reporter, actress Kathryn Rossetter claims The Graduate and Tootsie movie icon subjected her to "nightly sexual harassment" while they were co-stars in the 1984 Broadway production of Death of a Salesman.
According to Rossetter, Hoffman continued the disgusting behavior after they appeared in a TV adaptation of the play the following year.
Rossetter wrote in her Hollywood Reporter article that Hoffman put his hands up her costume, touching her thighs, despite many requests for him to stop -- and asked her for massages.
Rossetter said that Hoffman, now 80, helped her get the role of his lead character Willy Loman's mistress, known as "the Woman In Boston."
During the play, Rossetter noted that one scene required her to stand in the small space in the wings and laugh into a microphone, wearing "a vintage slip, no bra, garter belt and stockings." Hoffman sat in a chair behind her between scenes.
"One night in Chicago, I felt his hand up under my slip on the inside of my thighs," Rossetter wrote about the traveling show.
"I was completely surprised and tried to bat him away while watching the stage for my cues. After the show he was busy with the producer and director so I had no access to him to address it. It then happened almost every show. Six to eight shows a week. I couldn't speak to him in the moment because I was on a live mic. He kept it up and got more and more aggressive. One night he actually started to stick his fingers inside me. Night after night I went home and cried," Rossetter claimed.
According to the actress, Hoffman, known for his hijinks, once called some of the crew together for a "surprise," and the woman alleged, "Suddenly he grabs the bottom of my slip and pulls it up over my head, exposing my breasts and body to the crew and covering my face."
Rossetter also claims how, for their photos together, Hoffman would often grab her breast then remove his hand just before the picture was taken.
The actress contended that other times during the play's run, Hoffman would request she come to his dressing room, then ask her for massages.
"I considered reporting him to Actors Equity," wrote Rossetter, who later appeared in the movie Speed 2: Cruise Control. "But I was cautioned by some respected theater professionals that if I did, I would probably lose my job and, because he was such a powerful star, any hope of a career."
The Hollywood Reporter says in the article that they contacted Hoffman's representatives, who declined to comment.
But after his lawyers put the publication in touch with several people who were also part of Death of a Salesman at the time, production stage manager Tom Kelly said of Rossetter's claims, "'It just doesn't ring true. Given my position, it's insulting to say this kind of activity would go on to the extent of sexual violation."
The new accusations come a month after author Anna Graham Hunter claimed that Hoffman groped her when she was a 17-year-old intern working on the 1985 TV movie of Death of a Salesman.
Hoffman apologized in a statement about Hunter, saying, "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
But the scandal hasn't ended as earlier this week, TV host John Oliver confronted Hoffman about his alleged sexual harassment during a Q&A panel for the 20th anniversary of the film Wag the Dog.
Oliver said Hoffman's apology had been insufficient and Hoffman got annoyed, asking the host, "Do you believe this stuff that you're reading?"
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