Brendan Fraser has claimed he was sexually assaulted by the former head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).
The Mummy actor, 49, claimed that in 2003 he was attending an entertainment industry luncheon hosted at the Beverly Hills Hotel when he was hailed down by the former president of the HFPA, Philip Berk, who proceeded to assault him.
He told GQ magazine: ‘His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around.’
Initially overcome with fear, Fraser alleges he was eventually able to remove Berk’s hand.
He said: ‘I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry.
‘I felt like someone had thrown invisible paint on me.’
Fraser said he rushed out of the hotel and passed a police officer on his way, but admitted he could not bring himself to report it.
The actor considered going public with the assault at the time, but decided against it as he did not want it to become ‘part of [his] narrative’.
Fraser’s reps later wrote a letter to the HFPA demanding an apology for Berk’s behaviour.
Berk admitted he did write a letter to Fraser following the incident but insisted: ‘My apology admitted no wrongdoing, the usual “If I’ve done anything that upset Mr. Fraser, it was not intended and I apologise”.’
He also described Fraser’s version of events as a ‘fabrication’.
A hugely popular actor in the 1990s and the 2000s, Fraser has had a smaller public profile in recent years and said the incident with Berk made him become more reclusive.
Fraser is not the first male actor to accuse a Hollywood heavyweight of sexual assault.
Brooklyn Nine Nine actor Terry Crews filed a lawsuit against Adam Venit, the head of William Morris Endeavor’s motion picture group after claiming Venit groped him at an industry event in 2006.
Venit was given a 30-day suspension from WME after the accusations, which he strongly denies.
Metro.co.uk has attempted to contact Mr Berk for comment.
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