Over the weekend, the trade papers were making a big deal about how Gal Gadot had unexpectedly dropped out of an event where she was supposed to make a speech honoring Brett Ratner. Ratner is a producer and director, and he (like so many others) has a reputation of being a total skeeve. When I read the Gadot stories, I was like “Huh, I wonder if there’s something there,” because everything seemed very ***attention: foreshadowing***. Guess what? Someone must have given Gadot a heads-up. The LA Times just published a lengthy account of Brett Ratner’s history of assault and harassment with named sources like Natasha Henstridge and Olivia Munn. You can read the full piece here.

Natasha Henstridge’s story. She was watching a movie on Brett Ratner’s couch when she fell asleep. She was a 19-year-old fashion model; he was an up-and-coming music video director in his early 20s. They had been hanging out in front of the TV with friends at his New York apartment. But when Henstridge woke up, the others had left. She was alone with Ratner. She got up to leave, Henstridge said, but he blocked the doorway with his body and wouldn’t budge. He began touching himself, she said, then forced her to perform oral sex. “He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me,” she said. “At some point, I gave in and he did his thing.”

The denial: In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, Henstridge and five other women accused Ratner of a range of sexual harassment and misconduct that allegedly took place in private homes, on movie sets or at industry events. As is often the case, none of the women reported the allegations to the police. On Ratner’s behalf, lawyer Marty Singer “categorically” disputed their accounts. “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 in a 10-page letter to The Times. “Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client.”

Olivia Munn’s story: Olivia Munn said that while visiting the set of the 2004 Ratner-directed “After the Sunset” when she was still an aspiring actress, he masturbated in front of her in his trailer when she went to deliver a meal. Munn wrote about the incident in her 2010 collection of essays without naming Ratner. On a television show a year later, Ratner identified himself as the director, and claimed that he had “banged” her, something he later said was not true. The same year her book was published, Munn ran into Ratner at a party thrown by Creative Artists Agency and he boasted of ejaculating on magazine covers featuring her image, she told The Times. She said that persistent false rumors that they had been intimate have infuriated her, prompting her to talk to The Times in support of other women who are “brave enough to speak up.”

Munn’s statement to the LAT: “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,” she said. “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.” Ratner “vehemently disputes” Munn’s allegations, Singer said.

[From The LA Times]

The LA Times also shares an account from actress Jaime Ray Newman, who says Ratner graphically harassed her on a plane in 2005. Actress Katharine Towne also says that in the same year, Ratner harassed her at a party, even following her into a bathroom when she was trying to get away from him. He spent the next six months calling her and asking for dates. There are other interviews too, with former assistants and former coworkers who all swear that Ratner is a good guy and not an abusive bully like Harvey Weinstein. From what I’ve heard, Ratner does treat coworkers pretty well, in general, and he’s not the terrifying power-player that Harvey Weinstein was. But still… harassment is harassment, and Natasha’s story in particular shouldn’t be discounted.

Photos courtesy of WENN.