【Naked Poison II】

If Dustin Hoffman thought those sexual misconduct allegations were going to blow over quickly,Naked Poison II he's learning now just how wrong he was.

Actress Kathryn Rossetter has published a devastating essay in The Hollywood Reporterdescribing his repeated violation of her when they worked together in the 1980s.

SEE ALSO: John Oliver grills Dustin Hoffman over sexual misconduct allegations

The story arrives one month after Anna Graham Hunter shared her own account of being harassed by Hoffman, and days after John Oliver grilled Hoffman about the accusations during a public screening.

In the early 1980s, Hoffman helped Rossetter land a role opposite him in the Broadway revival Death of a Salesman. (She also co-starred with him in the 1985 TV movie based on the same play.) At first, she says, she saw Hoffman as "my hero."

But this promising collaboration quickly turned dark. In the first week of rehearsals, she says he brought her to a hotel room, ostensibly to pick up something he'd forgotten, and then asked her for a back rub, to which she nervously agreed.

"That was the beginning of what was to become a horrific, demoralizing and abusive experience at the hands (literally) of one of my acting idols," writes Rossetter.

Rossetter alleges a horrific pattern of abuse that involved Hoffman groping her every night backstage, summoning her for foot rubs, and grabbing her breast whenever they were having their picture taken at parties. (She says he would remove his hand just before the camera went off.)

On one occasion, she says, Hoffman began his nightly assault of her backstage. And then:

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Suddenly he grabs the bottom of my slip and pulls it up over my head, exposing my breasts and body to the crew and covering my face. ... Dustin had spread the word to the crew to come backstage at that time for a surprise. What a jokester. Mr. Fun. It was sickening.

In another instance, Rossetter snapped after Hoffman grabbed her breast while they were having their picture taken, and responded by grabbing his crotch to give him a taste of his own medicine. The photo was later published in Playboy.

"There in the back was a picture of me and Dustin and the other actress and I am apparently, gleefully grabbing his genitals," she says. "The caption was to indicate how fun-loving we serious theater people are."

The framing of Hoffman's abuse as "fun" is a persistent theme in Rossetter's account – as well as those of many of the other sexual abuse victims who've come forward in recent months. It minimizes the crime, recasting the perpetrator as an innocent prankster and placing the burden of not being offended on the victim.

Meanwhile, Rossetter says that the experience left her withdrawn and depressed, often crying at home after the show. But even after they parted ways, Rossetter felt the effects of Hoffman's power in the industry.

In the early 2000s, Rosseter worked the Playboyincident into a one-woman show she was developing – but dropped the project altogether when her agent got a call from Hoffman's office inquiring about the show, in fear that he might be planning to issue an injunction or sue her.

As we know, Hoffman continued to thrive long after his actions against Rossetter. She writes:

I continue to read the accolades pouring forth for him: Generous to a fault, kind, best man to work with. Women are overly sensitive to dirty jokes. Toughen up, ladies, etc. There is no denying I learned an enormous amount from him about acting. He was generous in the many presents he gave us and the many parties he threw. He can do all that and still be a man who manipulates, abuses his power and is a pig to women. They are not mutually exclusive.

Rossetter, on the other hand?

Along with the nightly sexual harassment, he eroded my confidence, my dignity. He humiliated and demeaned me. He robbed me of my joy in the experience and he left dirty fingerprints on my soul.

Hoffman declined to respond when THRcontacted him about Rossetter's story. But he did issue a statement in reaction to Graham's account last month.

"I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation," he said at the time. "I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."

It was a weak apology then, and it sounds even weaker now. Especially because, as we've seen time and time again in recent months, where there's one victim, there are usually more. As Oliver pointed out to Hoffman, it's a "cop-out" to claim that one's behavior is "not reflective" of one's character.

Hoffman may not want to talk about his past misbehavior, and he's surely hoping this discussion dies down quickly. But he doesn't get to control the conversation – not anymore. Women like Rossetter have spent too much time being silenced, and it's their turn to talk now.

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