PHOTO: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

Almost 40 women have come forward to accuse Hollywood director and screenwriter James Toback of sexual harassment in a bombshell L.A. Times story published Sunday morning. Known for movies like The Pick-Up Artist (1987), Love & Money (1982), and Two Girls and a Guy (1997), he would allegedly approach young women wanting to break into the industry or those he just saw in the street, try to impress them with name-dropping actors or producing clips about his work, and then try to arrange a one-on-one meeting with them that “quickly turned sexual,” according to the Times report.

Not just sexual, but “humiliating”: Toback would allegedly ask these women how often they masturbated and how much public hair they had. According to several accounts, he would tell them to take off their clothes, saying if they weren’t comfortable, then they didn’t have the “sexual confidence” for a role. Typically, he would grind his crotch into women’s legs or masturbate in front of them until he finished, alleges the Times, either on them or in his pants. Some women report him asking them to look into his eyes while he masturbated and pinch his nipples before he came.

He allegedly told one woman, 18 at the time and thrilled about a connection to help in her along with her dream of screenwriting, that she had to “be ready to turn yourself completely over to me.” He met with then-As the World Turns actress Terri Conn in Central Park and, she says, told her that “the best way to get to know someone is to see their soul. And the way you can see someone’s soul is to look into their eyes when they’re experiencing orgasm.” He allegedly “began humping her leg”—with people nearby—until he finished in his khakis.

“I was shocked and frozen and didn’t know what to do,” she told the Times. “I thought if I resisted, it could get worse. He could overpower me.”

Toback’s alleged behavior was whispered about enough in Hollywood that his name became a verb: “You got Tobacked.”

Not a single one of the 38 women in the story felt comfortable at the time reporting their alleged incidents to the police. “I felt like a prostitute, an utter disappointment to myself, my parents, my friends. And I deserved not to tell anyone,” said actress Adrienne LaValley in the Times story. Toback had allegedly met with her in a hotel room before trying to grind against her leg. She “recoiled,” and he came in his trousers.

Another actress, Starr Rinaldi, says that there was no good way out in an encounter with Toback, who she says “always wanted her to read for him” in a hotel or his flat: “The horrible thing is, whichever road you choose, whether you sleep with him or walk away, you’re still broken. You have been violated.”

As the Times points out, Toback’s name showed up in “his own special universe” of the #MeToo movement on social media, with many women hashtagging him in their posts last weekend. Even more have included #JamesToback in #MeToo posts since the Times story broke.

Toback, who is 72, denies the allegations in the Times article, and says that this behavior would have been “biologically impossible” for at least the past 22 years due to diabetes and a heart condition. His latest movie, The Private Life of a Modern Woman, starring Sienna Miller, was released September 3.

The L.A. Times story follows, of course, the massive New York Times investigation into decades of alleged sexual harassment and assault carried out by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein—whose behavior also allegedly followed set patterns. Like Weinstein, there were rumors and whispers. It’s yet another tale of yet another man (allegedly) abusing his influence and power to prey on the ambition of women. And as long as women keep speaking out, there will be more of them.

Related Stories:
–These Are All the Women Who Have Accused Harvey Weinstein of Sexual Harassment and Assault
–An Explosive Report Alleges Decades of Sexual Harassment by Harvey Weinstein
–Jennifer Lawrence Calls Harvey Weinstein Allegations ‘Inexcusable and Absolutely Upsetting’