By Associated Press
LOS ANGELES: Actor Chris Noth has been accused of sexually assaulting two girls in separate encounters that passed off in 2004 and 2015, in response to a report Thursday.
The girls’s identities have been withheld by The Hollywood Reporter in an effort to shield their privateness, stated the commerce publication, which used pseudonyms for them as a substitute.
Noth, 67, who starred in “Sex and the City” and seems briefly in its newly launched sequel, “And Just Like That…,” stated in a press release to the Reporter that the encounters have been consensual.
“The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross,” Noth stated in a press release to the Reporter.
“It’s tough to not query the timing of those tales popping out. I don’t know for sure why they’re surfacing now, however I do know this: I didn’t assault these girls,” he stated.
Noth’s publicist didn’t reply to a request for additional remark. A name to an lawyer listed as representing him was not instantly returned.
The two girls reached out independently and months aside to the Hollywood Reporter, the publication stated. One, with the pseudonym Zoe, stated the revival of Noth’s “Sex and the City” character, a man-about-town nicknamed Mr. Big, “set something off in me” and prompted her to go public with “who he is,” she informed the Reporter.
She requested her identify be withheld as a result of she works within the leisure trade and feared repercussions if she have been recognized.
Noth’s character dies within the opening episode of “And Just Like That…” after struggling a coronary heart assault following an intense exercise on a Peloton bike. The bikemaker poked enjoyable on the consideration the episode generated with an advert that includes Noth, however the spot was pulled on Thursday after the Reporter’s story posted.
At media requests, the Los Angeles Police Department checked into whether or not there was an open investigation involving Noth and located none, police Sgt. Hector Guzman stated. The particular victims bureau of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department additionally has no open investigation, sheriff’s Capt. Richard Ruiz stated.
Zoe, now 40, alleges she was assaulted in Noth’s Los Angeles condo in 2004, when she was 22. She’d met Noth as a result of he did enterprise with the agency the place she was employed, the paper stated.
A good friend informed the Reporter that she took Zoe to Cedars-Sinai hospital, the place she informed employees she’d been assaulted and was handled for an harm. The good friend, who’s not recognized within the story, stated police have been referred to as however Zoe declined to call her assailant to them.
Her then-boss, who was not recognized, stated that Zoe informed her of the assault later that day however requested to maintain it personal, in response to the story. In January 2006, Zoe sought counseling at a rape disaster heart, which the middle confirmed to the Reporter whereas preserving particulars personal.
The different girl, referred to as Lily, now 31 and a journalist, stated she met Noth in 2015 when she was 25 and dealing as a server within the VIP part of a now-closed New York nightclub. She recounted crying and feeling “violated” when Noth abruptly initiated intercourse.
According to a good friend, recognized by the Reporter as Alex, a distraught Lily referred to as her and stated that Noth has “pretty forcibly” had intercourse along with her in his condo. Alex stated she declined her recommendation to name police.
Lily informed the publication she did not bear in mind the decision.
In texts stated to have been exchanged by Noth and Lily and reviewed by the Reporter, Noth allegedly referred to “our night last week,” calling it “a lot of fun” and adding, “I wasn’t quite sure how you felt.”
In her reply, in response to the paper, Lily stated she “certainly enjoyed” his firm however “I did feel slightly used.” She stated she delay his additional makes an attempt to fulfill.
The allegations prompted a blunt on-line publish from actor Zoe Lister-Jones, who labored with Noth when he starred on a “Law & Order” collection and she or he was a visitor star.
“Last week, my friend asked me how I felt about Mr. Big’s death on And Just Like That, and I said, honestly, I felt relieved,” she wrote. “He asked why and I told him it was because I couldn’t separate the actor from the man, and the man is a sexual predator.”
Lister-Jones recalled how, throughout one take, he leaned in to smell her neck and stated, ”‘You smell good.’”