Suit: Paul Schrader Sexually Assaulted Me, Then Fired Me

Paul Schrader, the writer of Taxi Driver and director of American Gigolo, has been accused of sexually assaulting his former personal assistant, firing her when she wouldn't acquiesce to advances, and reneging on a settlement meant to keep the allegations confidential. The former assistant, IDed in court documents as Jane Doe, sued the filmmaker and his production company on Thursday, per the AP. She's seeking a judge's order to enforce the agreement after Schrader said he couldn't go through with it. The terms, including a monetary payment, weren't disclosed.

• Details: The lawsuit, filed in a New York court, laid bare allegations that the confidential settlement between Doe, 26, who worked for Schrader from 2021 to 2024, and Schrader, 78, had been intended to be kept under wraps. They include her claim that the filmmaker trapped her in his hotel room, grabbed her arms, and kissed her against her will last year while they were promoting his latest film, Oh, Canada, at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

• More details: Two days later, the lawsuit said, Schrader called Doe repeatedly and sent her angry texts claiming he was "dying" and couldn't pack his bags. When Doe arrived to help, the lawsuit said, Schrader exposed his genitals to her as he opened his hotel room door wearing nothing but an open bathrobe.
• Aftermath: Doe alleges Schrader fired her last September after she again rejected his advances. Soon after, the lawsuit said, he sent her an email expressing fear that he'd become "a Harvey Weinstein" in her mind. (Weinstein, the movie mogul turned #MeToo villain, was convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and is awaiting an April 15 retrial in his New York rape case.)
• Doe's legal team: "This is an open-and-shut settlement enforcement matter," Doe's lawyer, Gregory Chiarello, wrote in court papers on the breach of contract claim. Per the suit, Schrader agreed to the settlement on Feb. 5 but changed his mind after an illness and "soul searching."
• Schrader's legal team: The director's lawyer, Philip J. Kessler, deemed the lawsuit "desperate, opportunistic, and frivolous" and said many of the allegations in it are false or materially misleading. "We absolutely deny that there was ever a sexual relationship of any kind between Mr. Schrader and his former assistant, and we deny that Mr. Schrader ever made an attempt to have a sexual relationship of any kind with his former assistant," Kessler said. During the time that Jane Doe worked for Schrader, Kessler said, she posted on social media about how much she loved her job and referred to Schrader as an extraordinary mentor and "my man."

More here. (More Paul Schrader stories.)