Ben Affleck Groped An MTV Host And He's Taking Heat For It
Harvey Weinstein has finally been outed as the sexual predator that he is, but he's not the only one facing sexual harassment allegations.
Ben Affleck, brother of Casey Affleck (also accused of sexual harassment), was hurled into the crossfire when someone brought up that time he groped Hilarie Burton.
You definitely know Hilarie. She was a host on TRL:
She was Peyton on One Tree Hill:
And she's married to Jeffrey Dean Morgan:
Hilarie, who keeps a fairly low profile when it comes to social media, shook things up when she replied to a fan's tweet which said "[Ben Affleck] also grabbed Hilarie Burton's breasts on TRL once. Everyone forgot though."
Burton's response? "I didn't forget."
"Some girls like a good tweakage here and there," she said on the show. "I'd rather have a high five."
In the clip, you can see Ben Affleck reach around Burton, who was just 21 years old at the time, and tweak her left breast. Burton laughs it off, but says she had to laugh so she wouldn't cry.
This acknowledgement led to the discovery of another clip of Ben Affleck being inappropriate towards women, and also prompted him to speak out.
While promoting his movie Jersey Girl, Affleck was on the Canadian TV show Box-Office where he was doing an interview with Anne Marie Losique. In the interview, Affleck has Losique sit on his lap while he squeezes her close to him. He then tells the host that producers would prefer if she did the show topless and asks her why she's not showing more cleavage.
Affleck originally spoke out on the news that Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed multiple women.
"I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades," he said. "The additional allegations of assault that I read this morning made me sick. This is completely unacceptable, and I find myself asking what I can do to make sure this doesn't happen to others. We need to do better at protecting our sisters, friends, co-workers and daughters. We must support those who come forward, condemn this type of behavior when we see it and help ensure there are more women in positions of power."
Then, when the video of him harassing Hilarie Burton came out, he was a little less wordy.
Actress Rose McGowan tweeted her thoughts about Affleck and Weintstein's assaults, even coming after Matt Damon in the process. She told Affleck to "F*** off" and called Damon "a spineless profiteer." McGowan was also harassed by Weinstein 20 years ago. However, her comments went too far according to Twitter, who suspended her account.
McGowan's account is now up and running, but it's still not a great look for Twitter.
After all is said and done, it's important that women are speaking out about their experiences, and hopefully Affleck can be educated and use his status to bring change to the industry.