Two women have accused Dustin Hoffman of sexually assaulting them while working on the 1987 film Ishtar, and a third woman says the actor exposed himself to her in a hotel room when she was a teenager.
The three women spoke to Variety, each describing harrowing encounters with the two-time Oscar winner. One, Cori Thomas, told the publication she was friends with Hoffman’s daughter in high school, and in 1980, when she was 16, he invited her to his hotel room after taking the two girls out for dinner. At the end of the meal Hoffman sent his daughter home, and invited Thomas back to the hotel to wait for her parents. Thomas recalled him going into the shower while she waited in his room. That was when he exposed himself to her, she said.
“He came out of the bathroom with a towel at first wrapped around him, which he dropped,” Thomas said. “He was standing there naked. I think I almost collapsed, actually. It was the first time I had ever seen a naked man. I was mortified. I didn’t know what to do.” Thomas said Hoffman made her massage his feet, and repeatedly made sexual comments toward her. “I didn’t know that I could say no, so I did it. And he kept telling me, ‘I’m naked. Do you want to see?’” she said.
Melissa Kester told Variety Hoffman sexually assaulted her in the control room on the set of Ishtar, while Hoffman worked on vocal tracks for the film. Kester’s boyfriend at the time was working on the movie’s soundtrack, and invited her to the studio a few times to watch Hoffman record. Kester said Hoffman showed what appeared to be professional interest in her and asked her for her phone number, but on one visit, he grabbed her and assaulted her when her boyfriend wasn’t looking.