Kevin Connolly, star of HBO’s Entourage, has been accused of sexual assault by costume designer Gracie Cox.
As originally reported by The Daily Beast, Cox alleges the actor-director attacked her at a 2005 wrap celebration for The Gardener of Eden, which was directed by Connolly and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Cox particulars tales of Connolly being “pleasant and mildly flirtatious” towards her on set, together with instances the place he stopped filming to “publicly acknowledge her” and made “complimentary feedback in passing.” On the celebration, Connolly invited her to smoke with him earlier than main her to a VIP lounge space, which is the place Cox, who says she was “a bit tipsy,” claims the assault occurred.
“As quickly as we had been alone in that space, he began to kiss me,” she says. “I did not know find out how to reply—however earlier than I may even take into consideration what to do about it, he pulled me into one in all these little aspect [booths], and pulled down my pants, and turned me round, and inside no time was inside me. I used to be simply in shock.”
Connolly, who Cox says was not carrying a condom, then threw a pillow at Cox after the assault, telling her to “clear” herself up. When Cox re-entered the celebration, she bumped into fellow costume designer Amy Westcott, who confirmed to The Every day Beast that Cox instructed her what occurred instantly folllowing the assault and that she confronted Connolly over it shortly after. In emails between Westcott and Cox obtained by The Every day Beast, Westcott wrote, “I knew it wasn’t consensual, and went after him.” Addressing Cox in one other e-mail, she additionally stated, “I assumed you are [sic] skill to consent was impaired by alcohol.”
The Every day Beast spoke with two extra crew members who had been current on the celebration, each nameless, who say they noticed Westcott confront Connolly. One additionally says they noticed Cox trying “raveled” after rising from the lounge space.
In an announcement issued by way of his lawyer, Connolly denied all of the allegations towards him, saying the encounter between himself and Cox was consensual. “Kevin fully understands Amy’s displeasure with the consensual act that transpired between Kevin and Gracie 15 years in the past, after manufacturing had wrapped and so they had been not working collectively on the film,” learn the assertion. “Kevin acknowledges the shortage of professionalism on his half, however he adamantly denies that it was something aside from a mutual consensual encounter.”
Cox says that she regrets not getting a rape equipment finished on the time, however was anxious about her future within the leisure business. In 2017, amid the #MeToo motion, she reached out to girls’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred about her case, however was turned away as a result of the statute of limitations had previous, based on the report.
Cox provides, “I need it to be identified that he’s harmful, and I need him to not get away with it any longer.”
Kevin Connolly