An actress who starred in the US series Mad Men has accused Oscar nominated screenwriter James Toback of trying to ‘dry hump’ her and licking her armpit during an audition.
Becky Wahlstrom said she fought off Toback’s unwanted advances, knocking over a glass table and trashing his hotel room in her desperation to escape.
She documented the alleged assault in 1998 in seven pages of her diary – including pencil drawings of her alleged abuser.
But she said she had only felt brave enough to speak out now, in the wake of the revelations about Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and after Toback denied any impropriety with any other women.
Toback, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1991 for the Warren Beatty hit Bugsy, has been accused of sexual impropriety by 310 woman but denies any wrong-doing.
Becky Wahlstrom (pictured at the premier of NBC’s Life in 2007) said she fought off James Toback’s unwanted advances, knocking over a glass table and trashing his hotel room in her desperation to escape
The now 42-year-old documented the alleged assault in 1998 in seven pages of her diary (pictured) – including pencil drawings of her alleged abuser
Miss Wahlstrom documented the alleged abuse in her diary, even drawing a picture of James Toback looking menacing and touching himself
Toback (pictured), 74, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1991 for the Warren Beatty hit Bugsy, has been accused of sexual impropriety by 310 woman but denies any wrong-doing
Miss Wahlstrom, who also appeared in Joan of Arcadia and The Opposite of Sex, posted her claims on Facebook.
She was so incensed by his behaviour that she scoured her journals to find the diary entry from August 1998 about her audition for the crime drama, starring Robert Downey Jr, Jared Leto, Ben Stiller, Claudia Schiffer and Brooke Shields, on August 13, 1998.
‘In solidarity with the women who bravely came forward and to bolster their claims,’ she wrote, ‘I’m attaching excerpts from my journal entry written one day after my meeting with JT Aug. 13, 1998. It’s all in there.’
Afterwards she told Mail Online: ‘I was motivated to post actual pictures of my journal only because Toback was denying everything, saying these women were just hearing what other women were claiming and parroting them.
‘The journal was written the day after I met him before social media ever existed. It matches so many details these other women have described.
‘While I of course WAS a victim of this man’s abuse of power, I left that Black and White audition with my integrity and felt strong. Scared, but strong.’
Wahlstrom, 42, spoke out in the wake of an exposé by the Los Angeles Times, which interviewed 38 of the director’s alleged victims.
Since then hundreds of other actresses, including Golden Globe winner Ellen Pompeo, Julianne Moore, Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams, have accused the director of misconduct.
Miss Wahlstrom (pictured at the world premier of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle this year), who also appeared in Joan of Arcadia and The Opposite of Sex, posted her claims on Facebook
Some of her diary posts documenting the alleged abuse read: ‘Finally after lots of talk about sex, and his fantasies, he asked me to masturbate while staring him in the eyes’
Another note, dated August 13 1998, reads: ‘My hand is still shaking from last night and my sleep between now and then has been minimal’
Their claims are being investigated by Beverly Hills Police Department. ICM agent Jeff Berg has also cut ties with Toback.
However, in a conversation with Rolling Stone magazine, Toback, dismissed the allegations as ‘nauseating and disgusting’.
‘I would never say anything like ‘I’ll get you a film role’,’ he said. It’s too stupid to dignify. It’s pathetic lies. It’s just too fucking embarrassing and idiotic.’
His denial sparked Wahlstrom, who moved back to the States after drama school, to share her experience with industry newcomers, who might experience something similar.
‘To Young People starting out as actors/actresses,’ she added, ‘it IS professional and right to have lines and boundaries for yourself. Do not let anyone convince you otherwise. Do not let anyone take advantage of you or your time. And don’t let anyone hump your leg. That’s just sad.’
Wahlstrom was just 23 years old when she was auditioned by Toback at the Beverley Hills Hotel. She said she met him in the lobby before being persuaded to go to his hotel room and meet members of the cast.
But, after a while, the group broke up and Toback asked her if she could be trusted. He then confessed that he had once been bribed to throw a basketball game at Harvard and had lived under the nickname Doorlocker in a commune, which had been visited by OJ Simpson.
At that stage Toback got a telephone call and went down to the lobby. But, before he left the hotel room, he turned to her saying: ‘I just have to do this’ and licked her armpit.
Miss Wahlstorm is pictured at the Emmy after party in West Hollywood in September 2004
Feeling ‘super uncomfortable’ Becky followed him out of the room, telling him, that, if he wanted to get to know her, she would prefer to talk in the bar.
But he steered her back into the hotel room, asking what she was afraid of. ‘I am not going to fuck you, unless you told me you absolutely needed it,’ he allegedly said.
Despite his pledge, he then tried to persuade her to let him rub his penis on her leg and twist her armpit hair, while she twisted his nipples. ‘It’ll take all of 60 seconds,’ he said.
Terrified, she fought back, screaming at him, pounding on his chest and trashing his hotel room, flipping over a glass coffee table, lighting a cigarette and leaving the room.
Under the tag #metoo #JamesToback, she wrote: ‘I was 23. I got the audition for ‘Black and White’ through my agent so I thought it was legit. I was told it was at a hotel because James was based in NYC and only in town for a day.
‘He told me from the moment we met in the lobby that he saw my work in ‘Opposite of Sex’ and knew we were meant to work together (I had two lines in that movie so even then I thought it was weird) he just needed this time to get to know everything about me.
‘The meeting lasted roughly 4-5 hrs. It ended with me flipping over a glass table breaking everything on it and shoving him. I called my agent the next morning to tell her it didn’t go well.
‘I remember thinking she was probably going to drop me and that James or the hotel would be coming after me for the damages. That makes me laugh now. What little power I thought I had. What I was blessed with was a lot of anger and the ability to show it. It saved me from something worse, I’m sure.’
The 42-year-old actress, who made her sexual abuse claims on Facebook, is pictured in Mad Men
The actress (pictured) told MailOnline: ‘I was motivated to post actual pictures of my journal only because Toback was denying everything, saying these women were just hearing what other women were claiming and parroting them.’
Afterwards she recorded the meeting in her diary, drawing a pencil sketch of Toback rubbing his crotch: leaning to the left, it shows him with a balding head, shaped like a peanut, with his shirt unbuttoned to expose his chest hair.
‘My agent told me to write everything down in case it came up somewhere in the future, so I did,’ she added. ‘I even drew a picture of him. Reading these pages now as a grown woman I can see so clearly the grooming, the carrot-dangling, the fear building, the manipulation, and the gross abuse of power on a young person trying to start her career.’
Later she revealed that she had been so traumatised that she had prayed that she did not get the part.
‘Me, that gung-ho young actress, really just didn’t want that opportunity,’ she told IndieWire. ‘How could I not have wanted that opportunity to be a lead in a film?
‘He was that gross and he was just that unappealing that I was praying that he didn’t call my agent back and want to work with me, and then I’d have to force myself to make that decision.’