Five more women have come forward and accused Dustin Hoffman of sexual harassment, with two of them saying they were underage at the time.
These are the latest in a series of accusations levelled at the Oscar-winning actor since November. Hoffman’s attorney Mark A. Neubauer called the accusations against the actor “defamatory falsehoods” in a letter to Variety’s owner.
The first woman to step forward in the latest reports was Cori Thomas who said that she spent a day in New York with Hoffman and his daughter, a friend of hers when she was 16.
Thomas claimed that she unexpectedly ended up alone with Hoffman in his hotel room while waiting for her parents to pick her up. While waiting, Hoffman, who had seemingly gone to take a shower, allegedly reappeared in only a towel, which he reportedly dropped in front of the teen, completely exposing himself.
“It was the first time I had ever seen a naked man,” she said, “I was mortified. I didn’t know what to do.”
Her parents reportedly arrived shortly afterwards and Thomas left. The story was corroborated by a family member, who said that they’d learned of the encounter seven years later.
The second accuser, Melissa Kester, said her boyfriend at the time of the alleged incident was working on the music for Hoffman’s 1987 film “Ishtar” in Los Angeles and during a recording session Kester said she attended, Hoffman reportedly was struggling and asked her to come into the booth with him. Kester, who was there with her boyfriend and another engineer, obliged and went inside, where Hoffman allegedly grabbed her in a “kind of flirtatious” way.
However, she said she did not react and ran out of there because there were people present including her boyfriend.
The third woman, who preferred to stay anonymous said she met Hoffman the during the production of “Ishtar” in New York, the outlet said.
The woman, then 22 years old, reportedly had a small role in the movie and met the actor on set. On the final day of shooting, Hoffman invited her to the studio and encouraged her to stay for the wrap party.
Hoffman supposedly had a driver with a station wagon outside and offered to take her, and others, home. She said the pair lay in the back of the crowded car and Hoffman allegedly put his hand up her skirt.
At the end of the ride, Hoffman reportedly gave her $20 and asked her to meet him at his apartment. The woman said that she obliged and went to his building, where the pair allegedly had sex.
The fourth accuser, who went only by Pauline detailed her alleged encounter with Hoffman saying that she met him in 1973 when she was 15 and worked at a clothing store in New York.
Pauline recounted that Hoffman would often come by the store where they struck a friendship. She claimed that Hoffman invited her to his house to see a puppy which he had bought, but when she arrived, the apartment was empty and Hoffman exposed himself in front of her and started masturbating.
“I’d never even seen a naked man before,” Pauline said. “I had never seen anything like it. I didn’t know what to say, what to do.”
Pauline told the outlet she went home after and didn’t immediately tell anyone what happened to her.
The fifth and final woman who is referred to as “Carolyn” said she’d met Hoffman in 1975 when she was 21 and working as a tour guide in Washington, D.C.
She told the outlet that Hoffman’s assistant invited her, on his behalf, to his hotel that night. But when she got there, he reportedly knew more about her than she’d shared with him.
“It was as if he had researched me,” she said.
When the woman said she wanted to leave, Hoffman allegedly blocked the door and said, “Go home? You don’t think you’re getting out of here without having sex, do you?”
Dustin Hoffman is the latest to be engulfed in the wave of sexual harassment charges that has shaken Hollywood and brought down scores of powerful men including Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose among others.
Hoffman has also won Oscars for his roles in “Rain Man” and “Kramer vs. Kramer.”
