Dustin Hoffman accused of new incidents of sexual misconduct

More women are accusing Dustin Hoffman of sexual misconduct, including an incident in which a playwright says the actor exposed himself to her in a New York hotel room when she was 16 years old.

Playwright Cori Thomas described the 1980 incident in a story published Thursday by the trade outlet Variety. She confirmed the story in an email to The Associated Press.

Ms Thomas was a classmate of Hoffman’s daughter when she says she met the actor, who invited her to his hotel room to wait for her mother after a dinner with the teenagers. Ms

Thomas says after Hoffman’s daughter left, the actor took a shower and came out wearing only a towel, which she told Variety he dropped, exposing herself to him. Hoffman then put on a robe and asked Ms Thomas to massage his feet, Ms Thomas said, and repeatedly asked her if she wanted to see him naked again.

The Variety report included the account of another woman, Melissa Kester, who said the actor pushed his hand down her pants while they were in a recording studio. The incident occurred while Hoffman was recording music for the film Ishtar, and happened behind a partition while others, including Ms Kester’s boyfriend, were nearby.

Hoffman’s publicist and attorney did not return email messages seeking comment Thursday. It is the latest allegation of sexual harassment or abuse against the 80-year-old Oscar winner. Actress Anna Graham Hunter has alleged that Hoffman groped her and made inappropriate comments when she was a 17-year-old intern on the set of the 1985 TV movie Death of a Salesman. Hoffman said in an earlier statement that the incident “is not reflective of who I am”. Source: Bangkok Post