NEW YORK (AP) - Paul Schrader, the writer of "Taxi Driver" and director of "American Gigolo," has been accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting his former personal assistant, firing her when she wouldn't acquiesce to advances and reneging on a settlement that was meant to keep the allegations confidential.
The former assistant, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, sued the filmmaker and his production company on Thursday. She is 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, were not disclosed.
"This is an open-and-shut settlement enforcement matter," Doe's lawyer, Gregory Chiarello, wrote in court papers accompanying the breach of contract claim.
Schrader'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.
The lawsuit, filed in a New York court, laid bare allegations that the confidential settlement between Doe, 26, and Schrader, 78, had been intended to keep 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.
Two days later, the lawsuit said, Schrader called Doe repeatedly and sent her angry text messages 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.
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