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38 women have accused director James Toback of sexual harassment

Toback may not be a familiar name to many, but he is behind well-known movies such as 1974's The Gambler, 1987's The Pick-up Artist, and 1991's Bugsy.
Director James Toback attends the photocall for his movie "The Private Life of a Modern Woman' at the 74th Venice Film Festival on Sept 3. 

Add another Hollywood figure to the list of men in power accused of sexually harassing women.

Writer/director James Toback, 72, has been called out by 38 women, many giving graphic details of their alleged encounters in a story published early Sunday by The Los Angeles Times.

The allegations arrive as the Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to roil Hollywood. Weinstein, co-founder of Oscar-winning movie production company The Weinstein Company, is in treatment after accusations that he sexually harassed and assaulted women in Hollywood, including Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong'o and dozens more.

Toback may not be a familiar name to many, but he is behind well-known movies such as 1974's The Gambler (starring James Caan and Paul Sorvino), 1987's The Pick-up Artist (Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald), 1991's Bugsy (Warren Beatty and Annette Bening) and The Private Life of a Modern Woman (Sienna Miller and Alec Baldwin), which premiered last month in Italy at Venice Film Festival.

USA TODAY has reached out to Toback's representative for the filmmaker's response to the report.

The Los Angeles Times says 31 of the women spoke on the record about their encounters with Toback, which go back decades. The Weinstein scandal prompted some of them to come forward.

A 1989 article in Spy magazine noted that Toback would often scout for potential actresses to work on his projects at a market on New York's Upper West Side. Spy spoke to 13 women who gave various accounts of questionable encounters with Toback. The more recent Los Angeles Times piece said he would approach women in Central Park, standing in line at the bank or at the drug store. If they didn't recognize him, he would name-drop the movies that he'd worked on and their stars.

Among Toback accusers is Louise Post, a guitarist and vocalist for the band Veruca Salt, who met Toback while attending college in 1987. On Monday, as part of the Twitter hashtag #MeToo campaign, the band's account tweeted: "Us too: by bosses, boyfriends, male babysitters, taxi drivers, strangers and movie director/pig #jamestoback #metoo."

“He told me he’d love nothing more than to masturbate while looking into my eyes," Post told The Los Angeles Times. “Going to his apartment has been the source of shame for the past 30 years, that I allowed myself to be so gullible.”

Actress Echo Danon told The Los Angeles Times that in the director's trailer on the set of 1999's Black and White, Toback knelt in front of her, put his hands on her thighs, and told her, “If you look into my eyes and pinch my nipples, I’m going to come in my pants right now.” After she resisted, he backed down. It's an account similar to an allegation detailed in the earlier Spy piece, in which an editor named "Kay" told the magazine she was approached by Toback on the street in New York in September 1986.

Asia Argento, one of Weinstein's accusers, commended Danon for speaking out. She tweeted Sunday: "My friend @echodanon is one of the #heroes who survived the attack of deplorable #JamesToback and with her courage exposed his horrific M.O."

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