James Toback responds to sexual harassment allegations

Oscar-nominated writer-director James Toback, who has been accused of sexual harassment by more than 300 women, has defended himself in an explicit rant.

In an interview to Rolling Stone on October 17, before accusations broke, Toback said he wanted 'to spit' in the 'f**king face' of anyone who accused him, reports dailymail.co.uk.

"The idea that I would offer a part to anyone for any other reason than that he or she was gonna be the best of anyone I could find is so disgusting to me," Toback told Rolling Stone days before 38 women accused him of sexual assault.

"And anyone who says it is a lying c**ks*cker or c**t or both. Can I be any clearer than that? Anyone who says that, I just want to spit in his or her f**king face," he added.

Toback was confronted with two allegations in the interview. Five days later, the LA Times reported that 38 women had accused him of sexual assault -- a number that grew to more than 300 in the days that followed, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The first claim he was told of during the October 17 interview was that he humped the leg of actress Ambika Leigh until he ejaculated into his clothes under the premise of an 'acting exercise'.

The second was that he told another actress Sari Kamin to undress in front of him, inspected her body, then again humped her while fully clothed.

He said Leigh's story was "a total lie", adding: "I never heard that name before in my life. And believe me, I would remember it, because it's a very unusual name."

And on the subject of Kamin's story, he said: "This is just too stupid. I mean, these are people I don't know, and it's things I never would have done. And it's just not worth talking about. It's idiotic."

Toback tried to dismiss the claims as a conspiracy of liars, saying that the women "hear each other. And they gang up. People read things… it's all, you know, me too, me too, me too, me too, me too".

More than 300 women, including actresses Julianne Moore, Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Natalie Morales have now accused Toback for sexual harassment.

--IANS

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