Jeremy Piven has absolutely denied the claims made by actress Ariane Bellamar that he sexually assaulted and harassed her on the set of Entourage.
“I unequivocally deny the appalling allegations being peddled about me. It did not happen,” the actor said in a statement to EW.
“It takes a great deal of courage for victims to come forward with their histories, and my hope is that the allegations about me that didn’t happen, do not detract from stories that should be heard.”
In a series of tweets earlier today, Bellamar accused Piven of groping her breasts and sending her abusive and explicit text messages while on the set of the hit HBO show.
“Member when you cornered me in your trailer on the #Entourage set?” she said. “Member grabbing my boobies on the [couch] without asking??”
In another tweet, she said: “Jeremy Piven, on two occasions, cornered me & forcefully fondled my breasts & bum. Once at the mansion & once on set.”
She claimed that HBO would have footage of the abuse.
“And don’t try to deny it [the allegations], sir,” she tweeted. “HBO has us on [camera] together, and I’m sure Spring has electronic back-ups of your abusive, explicit texts.”
HBO issued a statement in response to Bellamar’s allegations appearing to deny it had any such footage, claiming this was the first it heard of the allegations and reiterating its zero tolerance policy around sexual misconduct.
“Today, via the press reports, is the first we are hearing about Ariane Bellamar’s allegations concerning Jeremy Piven,” it said. “Everyone at HBO and our productions is area that zero tolerance for sexual harassment is our policy. Anyone experiencing an unsafe working environment has several avenues for making complaints that we take very seriously.”
CBS, which airs Piven’s current show Wisdom of the Crowd, simply issued a statement saying it is aware of the media reports, and is looking into the matter.
The Piven accusations come two days after bombshell allegations about Kevin Spacey were made by Anthony Rapp, prompting Netflix to halt production on the current (and final) season of House of Cards.
