BACK IN FEBRUARY GQ did an in depth interview with actor Brendan Fraser called ‘What ever happened to Brendan Fraser?’. It made waves for a number of reasons but particularly because in the piece he alleged that he was sexually assaulted back in 2003 by Philip Berk, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).
Days after the allegations were made the HFPA said they’d launched a formal investigation into the claims but we haven’t heard much about Fraser since then. The HFPA have remained pretty silent on their investigation too.
Now Brendan Fraser has spoken out again claiming that the HFPA wanted him to issue a joint statement with them saying that what Berk had done was in jest. According to GQ, the proposed statement read:
Although it was concluded that Mr. Berk inappropriately touched Mr. Fraser, the evidence supports that it was intended to be taken as a joke and not as a sexual advance.
The HFPA also issued an apology and added ‘All parties consider this matter to be concluded’. Although the HFPA and Philip Beck seem to think that the whole matter was a joke. Fraser disputes this.
I don’t get the joke. I’m the only one who would know where I was touched on my body.
He also said that the HFPA won’t show him the full report of their investigation and would only share a summary apparently because of their concerns regarding witness confidentiality. Fraser wasn’t happy about this either.
They’re kind of behaving like wolves in sheep’s clothing about it, saying, ‘Oh, we want him to heal.’ Well, the first step in that direction would be: What am I healing from? Can I please see this report? What is it? They commissioned an investigation. They received their report. And they’re not giving any details about it, and they’re not giving up the report itself.
Philip Berk was also not shown the full report but was told ‘the statement would absolve me of any wrong doing’.
"It's not too late,” Fraser told @zachbaron. “They can still do the right thing." https://t.co/mFPXWdNErW
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) June 7, 2018
Meanwhile Brendan Fraser is left trying to move on.
I think I’m just the first brick in the path. Maybe someone else will put another brick down and the path will continue on. I don’t know. It’s not too late. They can still do the right thing.
The HFPA released a statement in response to the new piece in GQ and said that they had apologised to Fraser.
We’ve shared the results of that investigation with Mr. Fraser, and again apologized, but also conveyed our need to abide by the investigation’s finding that the exchange was not an intended sexual advance. We want to reiterate that the HFPA understands today—as it did 15 years ago—that what Mr. Fraser experienced was inappropriate.
Regardless of it was intended as a joke or not, grabbing someone by the ass and touching them without their consent isn’t acceptable behaviour and saying that it was ‘intended as a joke’ isn’t right.
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