#metoo

Paul Haggis, Oscar-Winning Screenwriter, Accused of Multiple Rapes

Paul Haggis. Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Advertising Week

Three more women have come forward with sexual-misconduct allegations against writer-director Paul Haggis, including one allegation of rape, the Associated Press reports. The new allegations follow a December lawsuit by publicist Haleigh Breest, who says Haggis raped her after a movie premiere in 2013. Of the three new accusers, one claims Haggis called her into his office at night in the mid-’90s, when she was working as a publicist for a show he produced. She claims he began forcibly kissing her, then raped her. The other two women claim Haggis got them alone with the understanding that they’d talk about work, kissed them without their consent, then began chasing them when they tried to escape. All three women deny any connection to Scientology, which Haggis publicly quit in 2009. Haggis, who won two Oscars for his work on Crash, denied Breest’s allegation and is countersuing, accusing her of trying to extort him. His lawyer now tells the AP the filmmaker “didn’t rape anybody.”

Director Paul Haggis Accused of Multiple Rapes