Jeremy Piven has been reeling under a stream of accusations of sexual harassment and assault over the past few days. Earlier in the week, reality TV star Ariane Bellamar explained how the actor sexually assaulted her during the filming of Entourage, cornering her in his trailer where he, according to Bellamar, “forcibly fondled my breasts & bum.”
This was followed by Longmire actress Cassidy Freeman writing on Instagram: “I know what you did and attempted to do to me when I was far too young. THAT I know. And you know it too. Unless there were so many of us, that you can’t remember. I hope from now on, you keep it in your pants and you never get to do it again.”
Now, in the most shocking account yet, advertising executive Tiffany Bacon Scourby has recounted Piven attacking her in 2003 at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City. In an interview with People Magazine, she said the following:
“I remember I was wearing this white ribbed turtle neck and brown slacks — business attire — and I was sitting right next to him on the couch. We were talking for about five minutes and he said he was waiting for his [publicist] to come with us. Then he jumped on top of me. I tried to push him off and he forced me to the ground”.
After that, Piven exposed his genitals and began rubbing them against her body, eventually ejaculating “all over her white turtleneck.”
Following this, Scourby recounts how: “I pushed him off of me and ran down the short hallway to get to the door. I rubbed my chest against the wall to get his [semen] off of my sweater. I ran outside and hailed a cab and I just burst into tears. I cried the entire way back to my hotel.” On the way home, Scourby called a friend to say what had happened, who corroborates her story.
Right now, Piven is denying everything, releasing the following statement on Twitter:
— Jeremy Piven (@jeremypiven) November 9, 2017
To put it frankly, I don’t believe a single word he says. As more and more women come forward, we’re starting to see a pattern of behaviour from Piven, and his offer to take a polygraph test (which is complete unscientific bullshit) to prove his innocence is risible.
Meanwhile, HBO have issued a statement that reads as follows:
“Today, via the press reports, is the first we are hearing about Ariane Bellamar’s allegations concerning Jeremy Piven. Everyone at HBO and our productions is aware that zero tolerance for sexual harassment is our policy. Anyone experiencing an unsafe working environment has several avenues for making complaints that we take very seriously.”
Consequently to all this, CBS’ Stephen Colbert-hosted Late Show has yanked a segment featuring Jeremy Piven, replacing it with an interview with Ronan Farrow instead, who’s been at the forefront of this current Hollywood expose.
