Mutliple women, including yesteryear Hollywood actors Karen Sharpe and Hope Holiday, have accused Jerry Lewis, the late American comedian and actor who is renowned for films like The Nutty Professor, of sexual harassment, Vanity Fair has reported.
The revelations came after Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering brought their interviews of accusations against Lewis, to Vanity Fair in a bid to make the women’s stories heard.
Dick and Ziering recently directed the investigation documentary film Allen vs Farrow that revolves around the sexual abuse allegations against famed filmmaker Woody Allen.
The allegations against Lewis, however, come four years after his death, in 2017.
Sharpe, now 87, said that Lewis had asked her to try outfits and show them to him after she was cast for the 1965 film The Disorderly Orderly. “He grabbed me,” Sharpe recalled. “He began to fondle me. He unzipped his pants. Quite frankly, I was dumbstruck.” As Sharpe protested against his advances and returned to shoot a few days later, she said that Lewis had decreed that no one should speak to her. Even though she offered to quit, Lewis said that she could not, since she had already signed the contract.
Vanity Fair noted that Lewis was “untouchable” by this period, having secured a record-breaking deal with Paramount in 1959.
Holiday, who got her breakthrough in Billy Walder’s The Apartment, said that she knew Lewis from when she was 13 years old and considered him family.
In 1961, Lewis offered her a part in The Ladies Man. Holiday recalled that on the first day itself, Lewis had summoned her to his office and had locked the door.
“Then he starts to talk to me: ‘Y’know, you could be very attractive but you wear pants all the time. I have never seen you in a skirt. You have nice legs and you’ve got good boobs.’ Then he starts to talk to me about sex,” Holiday recalled.
Even though her friends suggested reporting Lewis to the Screen Actors Guild, Holiday said that she was scared. “He was very big at Paramount. I was under contract to him and to Paramount, and I didn’t want to shake the boat. Y’know, I figured I’ll just keep my mouth shut.”
The Vanity Fair report also threw light on the rampant trend of casting couch in the film industry.
Actor and Oscar-winning writer Renee Taylor, who was referred to Paramount by Lewis after they met on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar, shared that the studio company had asked her if she was “one of Jerry’s girls.”
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The experiences of sexual harassment varied in terms of the star power of female actors as well. For instance, Tony-winning actor Anna Maria Alberghetti said that was able to reject Lewis’ advances because she was an established star herself.
“If this had been my first break in the business, I probably wouldn’t have had a choice,” she added.
Complaints of sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry only found a foothold after the ‘Me Too’ movement picked up in the last few years. Perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein, and Kevin Spacey have had to come face to face with either an everlasting prison term, or banishment from work.
However, cases like the recent overturning of the conviction of Bill Cosby also exist.