Famed actor, director, and producer Warren Beatty has been sued by a woman accusing him of coercing her into a sexual relationship in 1973, when she was underage.
In the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Kristina Charlotte Hirsch alleges that Beatty, 85, used his celebrity status to “groom, manipulate, exploit and coerce sexual contact” with her when she was 14 and he was around 36.
Hirsch claims that, after meeting her on a film set, Beatty allegedly began inviting her to his hotel room, as well as offering help with homework and taking her on car rides.
She says she has been suffering from “severe emotional, physical and psychological distress” as a result of the alleged relationship, and is seeking damages from Beatty.
The plaintiff first made her allegations public in 2017. She has now filed the lawsuit in accordance with California’s so-called look-back law from 2019, which gives sexual abuse survivors a three-year window to bypass the statute of limitations.
Beatty first rose to fame after starring in the 1967 crime drama ‘Bonnie and Clyde’. In 1982, he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for directing ‘Reds’, a historical film about the Communist movement in the US.
Hirsch appeared in the 1982 film ‘Countryman’ alongside her then-husband Hiram Keller.
The news of the lawsuit comes the same week as Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter Paul Haggis lost a civil case to publicist Haleigh Breest, who accused him of raping her in 2013. The jury ordered Haggis, who denies any wrongdoing, to pay Breest at least $7.5 million in damages.