James Toback ordered to pay $1.68 billion to sexual harassment accusers

Accusations against Toback began going public not long after the Harvey Weinstein accusations helped kick off the #MeToo movement; in late 2017, he denied accounts of more than 30 women who accused him of sexual harassment or assault in a Los Angeles Times column, and then went on denying when that number skyrocketed to 395 in the wake of the initial article. Performers, including Julianne Moore, Ellen Pompeo, Selma Blair, and more, have accused Toback of harassing them, many telling stories in which he would approach women on the street and attempt to use his credentials as a director to pick them up; others involved having meetings with Toback—who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for Bugsy in the 1980s—in which he asked sexually inappropriate questions and masturbated. (Toback has, as we mentioned, denied every accusation that’s ever been levied against him, claiming, among other things, that medications he was on made it “biologically impossible” for the actions described to occur.)

The jury clearly didn’t agree, and he’s now facing an absolutely massive penalty. Mary Monahan, one of the actresses who helped launch the civil suit, gave a statement today, saying, “This is not just a verdict—it’s validation. For decades, I carried this trauma in silence, and today, a jury believed me. Believed us. That changes everything. This verdict is more than a number—it’s a declaration. We are not disposable. We are not liars. We are not collateral damage in someone else’s power trip. The world knows now what we’ve always known: what he did was real. And what we did—standing up, speaking out—was right.”

[via Deadline]