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Brett Ratner Accused of Sexual Misconduct and Harassment


And so it continues. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times published a lengthy piece in which six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, open up about alleged incidents of misconduct and harassment they say occurred at the hands of director Brett Ratner.

Ratner got his start as a music video director but is best known for films like Rush Hour (and its sequels) and X-Men: The Last Stand. It is during his video days in New York that Henstridge, then a 19-year-old model, claims Ratner forced her to perform oral sex on him in his apartment where she had been hanging out with friends. Via his attorney, he disputes the claim.

Munn says that when she was an aspiring actress visiting the set of Ratner’s film After the Sunset, the director masturbated in front of her in his trailer. She wrote about the incident (hiding details and names) in her 2010 book, Suck It Wonder Woman! The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek and Ratner would later go on to claim they “banged”, eventually retracting that story in an interview on Howard Stern. Munn also alleges that Ratner once told her at a party that he masturbated to a magazine cover she appeared on. While he “vehemently disputes” her allegations, Munn says that she’s made conscious efforts to not work with Ratner telling the Times: “It feels as if I keep going up against the same bully at school who just won’t quit. You just hope that enough people believe the truth and for enough time to pass so that you can’t be connected to him anymore.”

While Ratner has been romantically linked in the past to actress Rebecca Gayheart and athlete Serena Williams, this isn’t the first time inappropriate behavior has gotten him into trouble. He was brought on to produce the Oscars in 2012, but was removed from that role after making a comment that “rehearsal is for fags.” Even those not super connected to Hollywood may be aware of the director’s party boy image. He told Variety that directors James Toback (currently facing similar harassment accusations) and Roman Polanksi are his close friends which is…interesting, to say the least.

It’s still unclear what effect these accusations will have on Ratner’s career. But what has become evident in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal is that women in Hollywood are no longer willing to remain quiet and we hope that their voices will empower others to do the same, prompting a real cultural change in the treatment of women everywhere.

As Munn said, “How broken do women have to be before people listen?”



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