X-Men director Bryan Singer accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a teenage boy
X-Men director Bryan Singer has been accused of drugging, manipulating, and forcibly sodomizing a then-17-year-old boy in a graphic new lawsuit filed yesterday. The suit further contends that Singer did these things as part of “a group of adult males similarly positioned in the entertainment industry that maintained and exploited boys in a sordid sex ring,” according to excerpts published in The Wrap. Implicated in the charges against Singer—and allegedly at the head of that ring—is Marc Collins-Rector, founder of the Internet startup Digital Entertainment Network and a convicted sex offender, who pled guilty in 2004 to luring minors across state lines for sex.
The lawsuit was filed in Hawaii, where attorneys for the plaintiff say some of the alleged events took place at the Oahu estate of hairdresser Paul Mitchell. They are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages for battery, assault, emotional distress, and “invasion of privacy by unreasonable intrusion.” A press conference is expected later today.
Singer’s accuser, Michael Egan, was a model and aspiring actor who says he first met Collins-Rector in 1998, when he attended parties at what was known as the “M&C Estate”—a mansion that Collins-Rector and his DEN partner Chad Shackley had purchased from hip-hop mogul Suge Knight, which soon became notorious as a place where a “who’s who of gay Hollywood” partied. Egan alleges that during one of those parties, he was introduced to Singer, who told him that the men he saw there “controlled Hollywood,” and that keeping them happy was the key to his fulfilling his career ambitions.
Over the years, numerous lawsuits have been filed by others alleging they were raped and coerced into performing sexual acts on the men of the M&C Estate—lawsuits that eventually led to Collins-Rector and his partners fleeing to Spain in 2002. Upon being extradited back to the U.S., Collins-Rector pled guilty to eight charges of child enticement and registered as a sex offender. He was also hit with a $4.5 million summary judgment in civil court. All of the accusations against him—and everyone who’d partied at his house—were well-documented in a 2007 exposé by Radar.
Filed nearly a decade after them, Egan’s own accusations recall those earlier charges almost exactly, alleging that the men there threatened the safety of his family, forced him to drink, drugged him without his knowledge, and repeatedly sexually assaulted him.
Here are some of the more graphic details, which will now be seared into your brain on this fine spring morning:
Approximately 2-3 months after Collins-Rector began sexually abusing Plaintiff, Defendant Singer was socializing with Collins-Rector around the estate’s swimming pool and Plaintiff was in the pool. In compliance with the “rules” imposed by Collins-Rector that people in the pool area were not allowed to wear clothes, Plaintiff was nude as was Defendant Singer.
Collins-Rector ordered Plaintiff out of the pool, and Defendant Singer hugged Plaintiff and grabbed his bare buttocks. They then went to the jacuzzi where Collins-Rector had Plaintiff sit on his lap and fondled Plaintiff’s genitals. Collins-Rector then passed Plaintiff to Defendant Singer and Plaintiff was made to sit on Defendant Singer’s lap.
Defendant Singer provided an alcoholic beverage to Plaintiff and mentioned finding a role for him in an upcoming movie that he was directing. Defendant Singer told Plaintiff how “this group” controls Hollywood, and that he was sexy. Defendant Singer masturbated Plaintiff and then performed oral sex upon him. Defendant Singer solicited Plaintiff to perform oral sex upon him which Plaintiff resisted.