On Friday, former model and actor Scott R. Brunton accused George Takei of sexually assaulting him in 1981, pulling his pants down and groping him after a date. While Takei claimed to have been “shocked and bewildered” by the allegation, it turns out that just last month, he casually admitted to committing almost identical acts to the one Brunton described.
After Brunton’s interview was published by The Hollywood Reporter, a clip from the Howard Stern Show has been making the rounds, in which Takei said that he sometimes touched men without their consent. The admission prompted even Howard Stern of all people to ask: “Do we need to call the police?”
Here is the transcript of Takei on Stern:
Howard Stern: Did you ever grab anybody by the cock against their will?
[Very long pause]
George Takei: Uhhhh...uh oh
Stern: Well they were different times, you never sexually harassed anybody–
Takei: Hey bonor [laughs]
Stern: –have you?
Takei: [Laughs]....Some people that are kind of, um, um, skittish. Or maybe, uh...afraid. And you’re trying to persuade.
Stern: Do we need to call the police?
Robin Quivers: What is he saying, Howard?
What is he saying, Howard? Stern seems to try several times to give him an out, possibly because the topic is segueing from sexual predators in Hollywood and politics. And yet:
Stern: Maybe it was some guy who was hesitating to have sex with you and you gave him a gentle squeeze or something?
Takei: More than gentle.
Takei then clarifies that “they came to my home,” which was supposed to indicate that this was not career-related, and therefore didn’t have to do with “power”–power over “skittish” people he had invited into his home.
Here is Brunton’s account of the 1981 encounter in an interview with The Hollwood Reporter. He says that after Takei gave him two drinks, he passed out, and when he came to, he was being molested:
“The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear,” Brunton says. “I came to and said, ‘What are you doing?!’ I said, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ He goes, ‘You need to relax. I am just trying to make you comfortable. Get comfortable.’ And I said, ‘No. I don’t want to do this.’ And I pushed him off and he said, ‘OK, fine.’ And I said I am going to go and he said, ‘If you feel you must. You’re in no condition to drive.’ I said, ‘I don’t care I want to go.’ So I managed to get my pants up and compose myself and I was just shocked. I walked out and went to my car until I felt well enough to drive home, and that was that.”
Brunton was only 23 at the time; Takei would have been in his early 40s.
The hypocrisy is staggering, as Takei literally went on to denounce Donald Trump for remarks like “grab them by the pussy.”