The writer and director has become the latest Hollywood figure to be accused of sexual harassment.
More than three dozen women have come forward to claim filmmaker James Toback sexually harassed them.
Toback, who wrote and directed The Pick-Up Artist with Robert Downey Jr. and Molly Ringwald, based the film on his own life.
Now he's being accused of sexual misconduct by up to 38 women.
The Los Angeles Times reports Toback “prowled the streets of Manhattan” and went up to attractive young women offering movie roles.
Elizabeth Crane says Toback lured her to The Harvard Club for an audition.
“As I was leaving he reached out and touched the back of my neck. I think I pulled away and said, ‘I’m not having sex with you’ and I left and I never heard from him again,” she told Inside Edition.
Actress Jenn DeLeo says she was approached by Toback when she was just a teenager.
“It was horrific. I left, like, really heartbroken,” she told Inside Edition. “He said, ‘well, if you want to be in my film, I need you to perform some sexual favors.’ I am not going into what he asked me to do. I was like, ‘No, I am not going to do that.’”
Toback, 72, is issuing a flat denial, saying he's diabetic and has a heart condition which makes it "biologically impossible" for him to engage in the behavior claimed by his accusers.
The accusations against Toback come as the Harvey Weinstein scandal reverberates well beyond Hollywood. Four senators revealed on "Meet the Press" that they were sexually harassed too.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says she was attacked by an older colleague when she was a law professor.
“He slammed the door and lunged for me, it was like a bad cartoon. He was chasing me around the desk trying to get his hands on me,” she said on "Meet the Press" Sunday. “After several rounds i jumped for the door and got out.”
