Second accuser claims Dustin Hoffman sexually harassed her

Actor Dustin Hoffman has been accused of sexual harassment by a second woman. Photo / Getty Images

A second woman has claimed Dustin Hoffman sexually harassed her, a day after the actor apologised for harassing a teenage intern in the 1980s.

Genius producer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis claims Hoffman propositioned her and asked her to accompany him to a nearby hotel during a meeting to discuss a movie version of her play A Darker Purpose in 1991, according to Variety.

Riss Gatsiounis claims she met with Hoffman and Tootsie screenwriter Murray Schisgal twice.

It was during the second meeting that Hoffman, then aged 53, allegedly harassed Riss Gatsiounis, who was in her 20s.

"He says, 'Before you start, let me ask you one question, Wendy - have you ever been intimate with a man over 40?'" she told Variety.

"I'll never forget - he moves back, he opens his arms, and he says, 'It would be a whole new body to explore'. I'm trying to go back to my pitch, and I'm trying to talk about my play. Then Dustin Hoffman gets up and he says he has to do some clothing shopping at a nearby hotel, and did I want to come along? He's like, 'Come on, come to this nearby hotel.'"

Riss Gatsiounis said Schisgal encouraged her to go with Hoffman.

"I'm just completely flustered," Riss Gatsiounis said. "I don't know what to make of this whole thing. And Murray's like, 'You can go! It's okay, go! Go!'"

But Riss Gatsiounis repeatedly declined to go with Hoffman.

"And Dustin Hoffman finally leaves, because I'm saying I don't want to go to the hotel. And then Murray Schisgal says, 'Look, we're not really interested in your play, because it's too film noir-ish.' And that was it," she said.

Riss Gatsiounis said that she left the meeting "close to tears" and called her agent.

"She said that she didn't want me to think that it was something I had done," Riss Gatsiounis said. "She had heard rumours about him for years."

A spokesman for Hoffman declined to comment.

Schisgal told Variety in a statement: "Dustin Hoffman and I took many meetings with writers and playwrights over many years. I have no recollection of this meeting or of any of the behaviour or actions described."

The report comes after writer Anna Graham Hunter, who was an intern on Hoffman's 1985 TV movie Death of a Salesman, accused the Oscar winner of sexually harassing her.

Hunter told The Hollywood Reporter that the harassment from the actor, who is now 80, was constant. She was 17 at the time.

"He asked me to give him a foot massage my first day on set; I did," Hunter wrote.
"He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me. One morning I went to his dressing room to take his breakfast order; he looked at me and grinned, taking his time. Then he said, 'I'll have a hard-boiled egg ... and a soft-boiled clitoris.' His entourage burst out laughing. I left, speechless. Then I went to the bathroom and cried."

The actor has responded to Hunter's claims, saying: "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."

Hoffman is the latest Hollywood heavyweight to be accused of sexual misconduct following scandals involving producer Harvey Weinstein, directors James Toback and Brett Ratner, and actor Kevin Spacey.