In wake of the Harry Weinstein scandal, the men in Hollywood like James Van Der Beek are also coming forward and sharing stories of sexual harassment from big-time industry titans.
On Thursday morning (October 12), Van Der Beek took to Twitter to reveal that he had been previously groped by a male executive. "For anyone judging the women who stayed silent, read this for perspective," he wrote to his 306,000 followers with a link to an article from The Cut called "I’m a Coward." "Also for anyone brushing off harassment as 'boys being boys. What Weinstein is being accused of is criminal. What he's admitted to is unacceptable - in any industry. I applaud everybody speaking out."
Later on, the 40-year-old actor revealed that he's had "[his] ass grabbed by older, powerful men." "I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger," he added.
Because names started to run wild due to these revelations, Van Der Beek also had to deny any speculation around potential perpetrators. "FTR, the harassment I tweeted about was by people 99.9% of you don’t know. 2 were charged (by others) & punished. The other has since died," he wrote. "So apologies to any mentors & champions and wonderful friends I’ve made in this industry who may have been pulled into wrongful speculation. I realize I left a door open by not initially naming, but please don’t impugn innocent people w/out cause. That’s not fair. Or right."
Van Der Beek joins Everybody Hates Chris star Terry Crews, who also revealed this week that he been groped by a "high-level Hollywood executive." Scroll on below to see James Van Der Beek's full series of tweets on the matter.
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