George Takei has denied allegations of sexual assault by former bartender Scott Brunton almost four decades ago. He talked about the topic while appearing on “The Howard Stern Show” before the allegation became public.
Brunton told The Hollywood Reporter the incident occurred in 1981, when he was in his early 20s and Takei was in his early 40s.
He recalled that the actor gave him a couple of drinks, which he said made him feel woozy. He sat down on a beanbag chair and passed out. When he came to, he said his pants were down at his ankles and Takei was groping his crotch.
Takei appeared on Stern recently, before the allegations against him were made, and the topic of those made against Harvey Weinstein was raised.
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Stern noted the irony in Weinstein facing repercussions for his alleged behavior, while our sitting president has bragged about grabbing women’s genitals without consent.
“You never hassled anybody, or grabbed their cock?” Stern asked Takei.
“Uhh…” Takei replied, after a pause.
“Uh oh,” co-host Robin Quivers said as he hesitated.
“Oh no,” Stern added.
“Well, they were different times,” Stern continued. “[But] you never sexually harassed anyone. Have you?”
Takei responded: “Well, it’s some people that are kind of, um, skittish, or maybe afraid, and you’re trying to persuade.”
“Do we need to call the police?” Stern asked.
“What is he saying, Howard?” asked Quivers. “But you didn’t do this grabbing at work?”
“Oh no, no, it wasn’t at work,” Takei assured. “It was…in my home, they came to my home.”
“Well, that was an open invitation,” Quivers joked.
“So what do you mean, you mean like some guy who was hesitating to have sex with you, and then you gave him a gentle squeeze on the balls or something?” Stern asked.
“More than a gentle,” Takei said, laughing. He added that the difference was that what he did “didn’t involve power over the other,” unlike with Trump and Weinstein.
Listen to Takei talk about it below…
