With every passing day, the glitz and glamour we associate with Hollywood is being eroded; replaced instead with stories of misogyny, abuse and depravity.
While Harvey Weinstein is undoubtedly a key player in the industry's abhorrent underbelly, recent reports have shone a light on the alleged crimes of director, James Toback.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Selma Blair recalled a meeting with the director where she was forced to undress and perform naked before being threatened to stay quiet about the encounter.
Having just wrapped Cruel Intentions, Selma recalls meeting the director in his hotel bedroom to discuss a role in Havard Man, telling the publication that Toback coerced her into undressing in an effort to prove her 'trust' for him.
"Will you trust me? I cannot continue to work with you unless you trust me. I need you to take your clothes off. I need you to do this monologue naked," Selma recalls Toback saying.
Remembering undressing despite her protestations, Selma recalled: "I do remember looking down at the script and seeing my bare chest and not being able to focus on anything but the words and my face being so hot and puffy and feeling so ashamed."
The encounter with the director did not end there, with Selma remembering that he made reference to his masturbation habits and forced her to engage in conversation about it.
"I tried to look away, but he would hold my face. So I was forced to look into his eyes," she remembered. "And I felt disgust and shame and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister."
Selma was left in no doubt that disclosing information about the encounter could have life-threatening implications, recalling that James made reference to another actress who threatened to out him.
"If she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I'm talking about, right?"
While auditioning for the same film, Rachel McAdams was also forced to endure Toback's advances, with actress revealing that the director asked her to show him her public hair.
After disclosing the details of her encounter to her agents, Rachel said she was outraged that Toback's conduct was known within the industy.
"That is when I got mad, because I felt like I was kind of thrown into the lion's den and given no warning that he was a predator," she told Vanity Fair. "This was something that he was known for doing already."
Toback has denied the allegations which have surfaced about him.
