A producer of a film about actor Joaquin Phoenix, an extra on the set of the TV show “Bones,” an assistant property master, and a makeup artist are among the plaintiffs in a recent epidemic of lurid Hollywood lawsuits.

David Boreanaz	Casey Affleck

At least five such cases (see table) have been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court since April — three of them over the past week — with the allegations leaving little to the imagination. Actors Casey Affleck and David Boreanaz are among the defendants.

“On one occasion, Affleck instructed a crew member to take off his pants in order to show Plaintiff his penis, even after Plaintiff objected,” Amanda White says in describing an incident that allegedly occurred while she was working as a producer on a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Joaquin Phoenix.

Affleck co-directed “I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix” and, according to White, subjected her and director of photography Magdalena Gorka to “uninvited and unwelcome sexual advances.”

“Affleck repeatedly referred to women as 'cows'; he discussed his sexual exploits and those of other celebrities that he allegedly witnessed; and asked Plaintiff, after learning her age, 'Isn't it about time you get pregnant?'” White alleges.

The $2 million suit also says Affleck invaded White's privacy by locking himself in her bedroom with Phoenix and two women while they were shooting in Costa Rica. “This was all a part of Affleck's campaign of abuse and harassment.”

Boreanaz, who stars in “Bones,” doesn't come off any better in a complaint filed by a woman who worked as an extra on the set of the crime show. Kristina Hagan alleges he exposed himself and masturbated in front of her on several occasions after he agreed to help her with her acting career.

The suit says Hagan was in a classic “no win situation” — while she rebuffed Boreanaz's advances, she also knew “she had to put up with a certain amount of his inappropriate sexual behavior in order to have any opportunity to obtain employment on 'Bones.'”

Another Hollywood case, meanwhile, alleges same-sex harassment among property masters working on the TV medical drama “House.” Assistant prop master Carl Jones was harassed by two male supervisors, the suit says,

based upon his refusal to go along with [their] degenerate conduct, visits to strip bars, participation in getting drunk, stoned or intoxicated on cocaine, to participate in sexual conduct at the [property] trailer, and other dangerous conduct.

California's Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibits harassment because of an actual or “perceived” sexual orientation. Jones alleges that a “motivating reason” for the conduct of prop masters Tyler Patton and Mike Casey was their “perception that Plaintiff was homosexual.”

As for ESPN makeup artist Victoria Jackson, she filed a $500,000 sexual assault case against Gene Simmons after the KISS rocker tried to preeempt her by filing an action in which he accuses her of extortion and seeks a court order declaring he did not assault her.

By Matthew Heller
7/28/10