Hollywood Foreign Press Denies Brendan Fraser’s Sexual Harassment Claim

Media organization won't release results of its investigation, says groping incident was merely a "joke."

 Brendan Fraser attends the 2018 Winter TCA Tour - FX Starwalk held at The Langham Huntington on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California.  (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Brendan Fraser attends the 2018 Winter TCA Tour - FX Starwalk held at The Langham Huntington on January 5, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
FilmMagic

Actor Brendan Fraser told GQ that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is denying that he was groped by former HFPA president Philip Berk in 2003. Fraser, who made the allegations while being interviewed for the magazine earlier this year, told GQ that he’s angry he stayed quiet after the alleged incident occurred in 2003, and he feels like he’s being asked to keep quiet again.

“It’s about being stripped of your identity, and of a power play being pulled to tamp it down, and being sort of backhandedly complicit in it by keeping quiet, entering into an agreement that you won’t talk,” Fraser said, describing to GQ a statement the HFPA wanted him to sign off on. It would have absolved Berk of any wrongdoing, and said in part: “Although it was concluded that Mr. Berk inappropriately touched Mr. Fraser, the evidence supports that it was intended to be taken as a joke and not as a sexual advance,” the proposed statement read.

“I don’t get the joke,” Fraser said, telling GQ it was irrelevant to him what Berk’s intent may or may not have been. “I’m the only one who would know where I was touched on my body.”

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.