“I want it to be known that he is dangerous,” Gracie Cox told
The Daily Beast. She is the former costume designer and now brave woman raising her voice and sharing her story of a sexual assault that occurred 15 years ago in New York at a movie wrap party. The man accused of her assault is none other than
Entourage star, and Leonardo DiCaprio bestie, Kevin Connolly. And he is denying the encounter is anything but consensual.Cox spoke with the publication, sharing that she was employed in the costume department on a film Connolly directed called
The Gardener of Eden, which starred Lukas Haas, and was produced by none other than DiCaprio. She had been recommended for the role by Amy Westcott, a legend in the costume design world. Cox said that Connolly had been flirting with her much throughout the production of the film, but always when no one else was looking. At the wrap party, which occurred at the Manhattan lounge Butter (which has since closed its doors), Cox said that’s when Connolly allegedly accosted her. The following account may be triggering for some readers.“He led me down a hall to what I guess was the VIP lounge area,” she described. “As soon as we were alone in that area, he started to kiss me. 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 these 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.”At this point in the story,
The Daily Beast reports that Cox’s voice started to crack as she continued, “There was not really a chance in my mind to object or resist. It just happened really fast. I froze and was in shock. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before in any way, shape or form. I was completely caught off-guard.”Cox says Connolly, who wasn’t wearing a condom, then, “took a pillow off of a couch, threw it at me, and told me to ‘clean myself up.’ He then told me that he was going to leave and to wait a few minutes, because he didn’t want anyone to see us together.”[video_embed id='1908385']RELATED: Our hosts react to Harvey Weinstein's guilty verdict[/video_embed]Her descriptions and memory of the event are truly harrowing, and disturbing. But after they broke this week, Connolly issued a statement through his lawyer, Marty Singer, which read in part:“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. Therefore, he was completely shocked to learn of the allegations made by Gracie Cox from a wrap party in 2005. The incident with Ms. Cox was consensual, and he categorically denies any claim that it was assault […] Kevin acknowledges the lack of professionalism on his part, but he adamantly denies that it was anything other than a mutual consensual encounter.”This isn’t the first time an
Entourage star has been accused of sexual assault.
Jeremy Piven has several accusers, but he vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
The Daily Beast has interviewed Cox’s then-boss Westcott, four of Cox’s friends from the time, and a few crew members on
The Gardener of Eden, all of whom confirm that Cox complained about Connolly’s advances before the incident, and that she spoke of the assault after the incident. Westcott in particular had written in an email at the time that she saw it as an obvious assault, and also angrily confronted Connolly at the wrap party.At press time, no charges have been filed against Connolly. Cox apparently reached out to Gloria Allred in 2017 after the #MeToo movement gained momentum, but Allred turned her down because the statute of limitations had expired[video_embed id='1994557']BEFORE YOU GO: Lindsay Ell tells us why her new album ‘Heart Theory’ helped her deal with her painful past [/video_embed]
