The dominoes continue to fall in the Hollywood industry, as more and more victims are coming out to reveal sexual assault allegations towards producers like Harvey Weinstein, directors like James Toback, and actors like Kevin Spacey. If anything, victims will not put up with the threats of being blacklisted or shamed anymore, nor should they. And this won’t be stopping anytime soon. In fact, you can expect to hear more stories.
The latest one comes from six women, Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge among them, who are now accusing Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand) of sexual assault. As a result, Playboy Enterprises will be putting a halt on the production of the Hugh Hefner biopic, which would have starred Jared Leto in the title role. More on the story below.
The LA Times first broke the news of the six sexual assault allegations. It’s pretty disgusting to read what Ratner did, but given what he has said in the past and his attitude, I cannot say I am surprised to hear this. What is more shocking is reading Munn’s account, who at the time was working with Ratner on After The Sunset, where she was asked to drop off food in his trailer. She was told that no one would be in it, and after she dropped it off and tried to make a quick exit, she found him there masturbating in front of her. If anything, these allegations shed more light on the problems that occur on set, and how more could have been done to protect her.
Henstridge says when she was 19, she was hanging out with her friends at Ratner’s apartment. She fell asleep, and when she awoke to leave, Ratner blocked the door with his body and tried to perform oral sex on her.
As more and more victims are finding the courage to stand up against these predators, the projects they are working on are coming to a halt.
For Ratner, according to THR, this means the end of the Hefner biopic and “the reboot of the late-1960s variety-talk mash-up Playboy After Dark.”
Leto, who was attached to play Hefner, will no longer be a part of the project. However, Leto’s representative Robin Baum, had a slightly different answer to the exit, but it had the same end result as he told THR that he “is not and was not attached to a Brett Ratner-directed Hugh Hefner film, nor will he be working with him in the future.”
Here’s what Playboy had to say about the allegations:
“We are deeply troubled to learn about the accusations against Brett Ratner. We find this kind of behavior completely unacceptable. We are putting all further development of our projects with RatPac Entertainment on hold until we are able to review the situation further.”
For their part, Warner Bros. is now reviewing their $450-million co-financing deal with RatPac, Ratner’s production company.
[Source: The LA Times | THR]
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment