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TV writer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis accuses Hoffman of harassment

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Press Trust of India Los Angeles
Last Updated : Nov 02 2017 | 4:42 PM IST
Television writer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis is the second woman to come forward with claims of sexual harassment against veteran Hollywood star Dustin Hoffman.
Riss Gatsiounis told Variety that the actor sexually harassed her in 1991 when she was in talks with Hoffman and "Tootsie" screenwriter Murray Schisgal to adapt her play "A Darker Purpose" for the big screen.
During their second meeting, Hoffman allegedly did not seem interested in discussing work. Riss Gatsiounis claims that Hoffman, who is nearly 30 years her senior, asked her, "'Wendy have you ever been intimate with a man over 40?' She added, "I'll never forget he moves back, he opens his arms, and he says, 'It would be a whole new body to explore'."
The writer alleges that Hoffman then requested she go clothes shopping with him at a nearby hotel, and that Schisgal, who was also present, urged her to go with the actor.
Riss Gatsiounis is the second woman to come forward with allegations against Hoffman. Earlier, Anna Graham Hunter, a former production assistant, claimed that Hoffman sexually harassed her on the set of 1985's "Death of a Salesman". She was 17 at that time.
A spokesperson for Hoffman declined to comment to Variety while Schisgal said he had no recollection of the meeting described Gatsiounis.
"Dustin Hoffman and I took many meetings with writers and playwrights over many years. I have no recollection of this meeting or of any of the behaviour or actions described," he said.

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First Published: Nov 02 2017 | 4:42 PM IST

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