For the first time, Terry Crews has named WME agent Adam Venit as the Hollywood executive whom he alleges sexually assaulted him at a party last year. Crews originally shared his story on Twitter, and after filing a police report against the agent last week, he appeared on Good Morning America on Wednesday to describe the incident in detail. Crews and his wife were attending an event in February 2016 when he says Venit, whom Crews hadn’t met prior to that night, began behaving inappropriately. “He’s basically staring at me and sticking his tongue out and just [doing] overtly sexual tongue moves,” he says. “I’m looking like, ‘Is this a joke? I don’t understand.’ It was actually so bizarre.”
When Venit approached him, Crews says he attempted to shake Venit’s hand, but Venit allegedly “squeezed [Crews’s] genitals” while making suggestive tongue gestures. “I jumped back like, ‘Hey, hey, dude, what are you doing?!” Crews says. Crews claims Venit then groped him a second time. He recalls pushing Venit back, and Venit “laughing and giggling” throughout. “I’ve never felt more emasculated, more objectified. I was horrified,” Crews says. He says he notified Adam Sandler (whom Venit represents) at the party of the incident, but that Sandler was equally confused. Crews says he refrained from physical retaliation because he didn’t want to be viewed as a “thug,” and left the party with his wife after 30 minutes.
After the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, Crews says he suffered PTSD and decided to speak up. He claims he previously kept silent because Venit, who took a leave of absence from WME earlier this month, had “looked at [him] at the end as if, ‘Who’s going to believe you?’” “I understand why women everywhere had to let it go,” he says now. “When a person of power breaks and violates that boundary, you’re a prisoner of war.” He adds, “I will not be shamed. I did nothing wrong … It was foul to the core and it still shocks me.”
