Photo courtesy of The Daily Beast.
Summary: Brett Ratner, who has a $450 million producing deal with Warner Brothers, has been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct.
Producer and director Brett Ratner is the latest alleged Hollywood open secret to be publicly accused of sexually harassing women during his long career. On Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times published a damning expose where six women went on the record to reveal how the Rush Hour producer with a $450 million deal at Warner Brothers used his power to treat women like sexual objects.
Actress Natasha Henstridge said that when she was 19-years-old, she was watching a movie at Ratner’s home with friends when she fell asleep. When she woke up, the others were gone and Ratner had blocked her from exiting and began touching himself. She said that he then forced her into performing oral sex.
“He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me,” Henstridge said. “At some point, I gave in and he did his thing.”
Henstridge said that she had told close friends of her encounter, but she never publicly accused him of impropriety until now.
In contrast, Olivia Munn who has starred in X-Men: Apocalypse and The Newsroom has had an almost decade-long feud with Ratner after she wrote in her 2010 autobiography that she was asked to deliver him food and was surprised when he greeted her by masturbating while eating shrimp. Ratner was subsequently asked about the lewd encounter, and he claimed that he had slept with Munn several times and forgot about her. He later admitted that they had never had sex and that he had lied.
“I’ve made specific, conscientious choices not to work with Brett Ratner,” Munn said. “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.”
Four other women spoke to The Los Angeles Times about Ratner’s sexual harassment and misconduct, and in response, Warner Brothers stated they were reviewing their deal with him.
Ratner is represented by Martin “Marty” Singer, who has disputed Henstridge and the other women’s accounts. Like in many sexual harassment cases, none of the women reported the abuse to the police, and Singer used that fact to defend his client.
“I have represented Mr. Ratner for two decades, and no woman has ever made a claim against him for sexual misconduct or sexual harassment,” Singer said to The Los Angeles Times. “Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client.”
Ratner, 48, has dated starlets such as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, and his playboy persona was well-known throughout the industry. For instance, Tina Fey joked at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, “Brett Ratner is here. In his defense, he thought this was a thing where you could eat breakfast off of 100 women.”
Ratner co-founded the production company, RatPac Entertainment, which later partnered with now-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s Dune Entertainment. The rebranded RatPac-Dune made a multimillion dollar producing deal with Warner Brothers, and their credits include Jersey Boys and Black Mass.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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