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Brett Ratner, the Hollywood movie producer accused of sexually harassing seven women, is taking at least one of them to court.
E! News reports Ratner has filed a defamation case against a woman named Melanie Kohler who claimed Ratner raped her 12 years ago in a Facebook post published prior to the Los Angeles Times expose that accuses him of harassment.
Ratner “was a rapist on at least one night in Hollywood about 12 years ago” and “preyed on me as a drunk girl [and] forced himself upon me,” Kohler wrote.
A lawyer for the X:Men and The Revenant producer said the accusations by Kohler are “deliberately false and malicious” and were published “with knowledge of its falsity, maliciously and with the intent to harm the plaintiff’s reputation and standing.”
Ratner, a close friend and business partner of James Packer, has not yet filed cases against the six women including Oliva Munn that claimed he sexually harassed them in the LA Times story.
X:Men and The Newsroom star Munn alleges that when she once dropped food off to Ratner in his trailer on a film set, he pleasured himself in front of her to completion.
Munn wrote about the encounter in her 2010 memoir Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek, although she did not name Ratner.
Ratner and billionaire Packer own film production and financing company RatPac Entertainment together.
In the wake of the Los Angeles Times report, Warner Bros told the newspaper it is reviewing a $450-million co-financing deal with the company.
Ratner is the latest high profile Hollywood figure to be accused of sexual harassment after Harvey Weinstein, James Toback and Kevin Spacey.
