PHOTOSMichael Douglas Preemptively Denies Major Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Jan. 10 2018, Updated 3:51 p.m. ET
Michael Douglas is speaking out ahead of time regarding a story that he claims is set to be published about an incident that happened with a female who worked for his production company over 30 years ago. The story alleges that the Wall Street actor masturbated in front of a female employee and blackballed her from Hollywood, which he categorically denies. Click through for all the details.
He told Deadline that The Hollywood Reporter was set to publish the story, and that he wanted to speak about it ahead of time before if and when they actually published it.
The story revolves around a woman who claimed he masturbated in front of her 32 years ago while working at his production company in New York and him eventually blackballing her from the industry. Both Deadline and Michael did not identify the woman in question, and he denies this ever happened.
“I don’t know where to begin. This is a complete lie, fabrication, no truth to it whatsoever,” he told Deadline on Tuesday night. He claimed that The Hollywood Reporter approached him right before Christmas regarding the story, which he then alleged that the story would be running some point shortly thereafter. As of Wednesday morning, that story has not run.
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He also denied any sort of blackballing her from the industry, saying "She was a lady who was involved in development at my company, and we just didn’t have a good development record in the time she was there, so I just moved on. I never blackballed her. If people from the industry called me to ask about her, I would have been honest, but I never blackballed her.”
Whereas he did admit to using profanities in front of this particular employee, he never directed any salty language directly at her.
When asked by Deadline why he felt the need to speak up about a story that has yet to be published, he said "I felt the need to get ahead of this. It pertains to me but I’m also getting a sense of how it reflects in our culture, and what is going on today. I see it as a cautionary tale,” in regards to the several high-profile men who have been accused of similar incidents including Harvey Weinstein, Louie C.K. and many more.
Do you think Michael is trying to clear his name ahead of time, or is there more to this story than what he is alleging? Sound off in the comments.
