Actor and director Kevin Connolly, known for his work on the HBO series Entourage, has been accused of raping a costume designer at a party in 2005.
Gracie Cox, who was working in the film industry during the time, ran into Connolly at a wrap party in Manhattan arranged to celebrate his completion of The Gardener of Eden, according to the Daily Beast. Cox, who now works as a children’s therapist, said she is making her charges now because “I want it to be known that he is dangerous.”
“We were at the party, and I don’t think I’d been there for more than an hour or so when Kevin approached me and asked if I’d go with him for a smoke,” Cox claimed of their meeting at the party.
Connolly, Cox claims, led her to the VIP lounge, where he immediately began trying to kiss.
“As soon as we were alone in that area, he started to kiss me,” Cox said. “I didn’t know how to respond — but before I could even think about what to do about it, he pulled me into one of those little side [booths], and pulled down my pants, and turned me around, and within no time was inside of me. I was just in shock.”
Cox also claimed that Connolly dismissively told her to “clean yourself up” afterwards.
Before he left the room, Cox says the director told her, “he was going to leave and to wait a few minutes, because he didn’t want anyone to see us together.”
Cox admits that she did not get a rape kit performed after the alleged encounter. She also revealed that salacious Hollywood attorney Gloria Allred rejected her case because the statute of limitations had passed. Cox said that people like Connolly “have a lot of power” but she wants people to know he is “dangerous.”
Connolly sent Daily Beast a statement through his lawyer, Marty Singer. The actor-director denies the allegations of rape, but admits to having had sex with her at the party.
“Kevin strongly supports victims of sexual assault and believes their claims should always be heard. As someone who has worked in this industry for four decades, he has treated people with nothing but respect and has maintained a stellar reputation,” the statement reads. “Therefore, he was completely shocked to learn of the allegations made by Gracie Cox from a wrap party in 2005.”
“Kevin acknowledges the lack of professionalism on his part, but he adamantly denies that it was anything other than a mutual consensual encounter,” Singer’s statement concluded.
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