Brendan Fraser says that he was sexually assaulted by Philip Berk, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
If you didn’t know, the HFPA is the group that votes for the Golden Globes each year.
Brendan told GQ that the incident happened in the summer of 2003 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. When Brendan reached out to shake Philip‘s hand, the man reached around and allegedly assaulted him.
“His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around,” Brendan told GQ. Berk claims that he just “pinched” his ass in jest.
“I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry,” Brendan said, though he decided to not go public at the time. “I didn’t want to contend with how that made me feel, or it becoming part of my narrative.”
Fraser‘s reps asked the HFPA for a written apology and Berk admits that he wrote one. “My apology admitted no wrongdoing, the usual ‘If I’ve done anything that upset Mr. Fraser, it was not intended and I apologize,’” he said.
Brendan said the incident made him retreat and “feel reclusive.” He also wonders if his career was derailed by the HFPA. “I don’t know if this curried disfavor with the group, with the HFPA. But the silence was deafening,” he said.
Read the full piece on GQ.com.
