Actress accuses Roman Polanski of also sexually abusing her when she was a minor
Adding potentially damaging new evidence to the case against Roman Polanski, a British actress who worked on the director’s 1986 film Pirates has come forward to accuse him of sexually abusing her when she was 16. Earlier today, Charlotte Lewis held a press conference with her attorney, the ubiquitous Gloria Allred, and made the charges public, saying Polanski had “forced himself upon” her in his apartment in Paris and abused her “in the worst possible way.”
As to why she waited until now to say anything, Lewis said she did so to bolster the prosecution’s case against Polanski—who is still trying to avoid extradition from Switzerland—and to refute its claims that the incident involving a 13-year-old girl some four years prior to what happened with Lewis was an “isolated instance.” The Los Angeles district attorney’s office said it had already met with Lewis, where she had reportedly provided evidence to back her claims, but it offered no further details beyond that. Lewis is not pursuing her own lawsuit at this time, but Allred says she is ready to testify if and when the Polanski case goes forward.
In addition to starring in Pirates as a teenager, Lewis played Eddie Murphy’s love interest, “Kee Nang,” in The Golden Child, and had a small role on Seinfeld as the model George dated whom he suspected of being bulimic. She’s also a former Playboy model who’s had several roles in softcore cable movies such as Red Shoe Diaries 6 and The Glass Cage. Her most recent film was 2003’s Hey DJ.