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Dustin Hoffman Accused by Three Women of Sexual Harassment

Summary: Actor Dustin Hoffman has been accused by another woman of sexual misconduct.

Actor Dustin Hoffman has been accused by three women of sexual misconduct towards them. The latest woman to accuse the American actor and director of sexual harassment is actress Kathryn Rossetter.

Rossetter claims the harassment and additional groping happened when they co-starred together in the TV and Broadway productions of “Death of a Salesman” back in the 80s. In a report to The Hollywood Reporter, Rossetter described her experience with Hoffman as a “horrific, demoralizing and abusive experience at the hands (literally) of one of my acting idols.”

In her report, she noted that Hoffman groped her on multiple occasions while backstage, even slipping his hand underneath her slip while she was waiting on the side of the stage for a cue to laugh. Rossetter states that the first time he groped her, she was “completely surprised and tried to bat him away” when he put his hands on her thighs.

She said, “He kept it up and got more and more aggressive. One night he actually started to stick his fingers inside me. Night after night I went home and cried. I withdrew and got depressed and did not have any good interpersonal relationships with the cast.”

She also claims he would grope her during the after parties. “Whenever he had a picture taken with me, he would put his arm around my rib cage and then grab my breast before they snapped the picture and then remove it. He was very skilled at dropping his hand just as the picture snapped to avoid it being recorded. Only by luck do I have one such picture – where the camera caught him in the act. A picture I had taken with hopes of sending it to family. A millisecond in time. There I am – big smile and my arm moving toward his with the intention to push it away. But caught as it is, it seems I’m complicit with the gesture. I was not. Not ever,” she continued.

Hoffman would allegedly require Rossetter to give him foot rubs, urging her to rub “higher, higher.” She said, “I didn’t do it. I would stop at his calves. I understand how women say they just go inside themselves to another place as a form of protection, to distance themselves from the abuse. I felt trapped.”

Rossetter claims that at one point, he pulled her slip over her head so she was completely exposed to the entire crew and missed her cue during the performance. This was a breaking point for Rossetter. She explained, “When at last I found an opportunity, I pushed Dustin up against the wall screaming, ‘F*** you! How would you like it if someone did that to you before you walked out on stage every night, Mr. Method Actor?’”

The sexual harassment ended for three days but then was right back to where it used to be. Again, she reached a point where she could not take his harassment any longer so she grabbed him in the crotch during a picture. That picture ended up in Playboy magazine. “There in the back was a picture of me and Dustin and the other actress and I am apparently, gleefully grabbing his genitals. Yes, the millisecond had caught the act. But it hadn’t captured the story. The caption was to indicate how fun-loving we serious theater people are.”

She claims his actions, “eroded” her confidence and dignity. “He humiliated and demeaned me. He robbed me of my job in the experience and he left dirty fingerprints on my soul.”

Do you think some of the men being accused of sexual misconduct were unknowingly encouraged by their accusers or are there just that many men that are disrespectful to women? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

To learn more about recent sexual harassment allegations against other big players, read these articles:

Photo: breitbart.com

Amanda Griffin: