Jordan Strauss Jordan Strauss

AT THE BEGINNING of October, actor Terry Crews bravely spoke out about being groped by a ‘high level Hollywood executive’ last year.

Crews said that the stories of sexual harassment circulating at the time were ‘giving him PTSD‘, because he, too, had been affected by abuse in Hollywood. Crews was the first of many men to speak out about their experience, proving that this can happen to anybody – whether you’re a 110lb 5’5″ woman or a 240lb 6’3″ man.

Birdie Thompson Birdie Thompson

Crews spoke out about the incident again on Good Morning America.

My wife and I were at an event with Adam Sandler. He’s Adam Sandler’s agent, he’s Sylvester Stallone’s agent, he’s Eddie Murphy’s agent. He’s connected to everyone I know in the business. Here’s the thing – I did not know this man. I have never had a conversation with him, ever. The first time I had an interaction with him was at this event.

When this agent groped Terry, he says his first instinct was ‘to punch him in the face’. He  resisted, heeding the advice his wife had always given him about how he should never deal with any situation through violence.

I’m looking at him, and he’s staring at me and sticking his tongue out. It’s overtly sexual. It’s a party, it’s packed and I’m looking at him like ‘Is this a joke?’ It was so bizarre. He comes over to me, and he literally takes his hand and squeezes my genitals. I really got forceful. Pushed him back, and he starts giggling and laughing. I have never felt more emasculated, more objectified.

He took his wife’s hand and immediately left the party, so furious that he ‘almost ripped the steering wheel off’.

Terry did a very important thing by speaking out, and the support he received gave him the strength to report the incident to LAPD a week ago. The agent has since taken leave from his agency.

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In the same appearance on Good Morning America, Terry powerfully concluded:

People need to be held accountable. It’s an abuse of power. This guy, again one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. He looked at me in the end as if, ‘Who’s going to believe you?’ I put it in the back of my head, I understand why women everywhere had to let it go. I will not be shamed. I did nothing wrong.

It is clear that Terry is still upset by the incident. Last night he highlighted the fact that he’s still being pressured to remain silent and to withdraw his allegations, after he shared a screenshot of an email he received from Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons.

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The email read:

Did he ever apologise Give the agent a pass ask that he be reinstated (sic)

Terry posted the photograph and tweeted ‘NO ONE GETS A PASS’.

In the same day, Russell Simmons (alongside filmmaker Brett Ratner – who Ellen Page spoke out about earlier this month) was accused of sexually assaulting a minor in the early 90s.

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The Los Angeles Times report that Simmons and Ratner took advantage of a teenage girl called Keri Claussen Khalighi at a casting call. Khaligi was taken for dinner by the two men, then invited back to Simmons’ apartment to look at a music video they had been working on. Khaligi alleges that ‘Simmons began pulling off her clothes and making sexually aggressive advances’.

Brett Ratner Willy Sanjuan Willy Sanjuan

She added that she ‘fought it wildly’ and will ‘never forget the look on his face’. She was terrified when she reached the realisation that Ratner and Simmons ‘were in it together’. She says that she was coerced into performing oral sex on Simmons while Ratner watched. Afterwards Simmons allegedly penetrated the girl without her consent.

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Simmons released a statement disputing Keri’s calims, insisting that ‘everything that occurred’ between him and Keri ‘occurred with her full consent’.

Another woman, Tanya Reid, says that in 1994 when she was an 18-year-old aspiring model working at the desk of a hotel, she received multiple calls from both Ratner and Simmons. She was asked to bring a toothbrush to Simmons’ hotel room and she said that she’d send somebody else up with one, but he insisted that it should be delivered by her.

I remember this very, very clearly, the exact words he said on the phone. He wanted me to come upstairs so Brett could hold me down and he could [perform oral sex].

Simmons says he has no recollection of the phone call. Reid says that on another occasion, Ratner came to her apartment by himself and exposed himself to her. Ratner’s attorney stated that Ratner had no recollection of Reid or that incident.

Javier Rojas Javier Rojas

In another incident in 2001, Brett Ratner and Russell Simmons were investigated by police for alleged sexual battery.

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