Hayden Panettiere recalls an incident in which an Oscar winner exposed himself to her once at a party when she was 19 years old.
The actress, now 36, spoke about the encounter in her new memoir, This is me: an accountShe said she attended a party in a private apartment with a friend, but later felt increasingly uncomfortable after chatting with a group of men at the gathering.
As she was preparing to leave, she claimed that a “well-respected” and “Oscar-winning” actor and director, whom she did not mention in her memoir, approached her as she was putting on her coat. It was his next actions that left her “shocked”.
Panettiere said in her book that the man pointed to his pants, claiming that gum was stuck to them. “I looked down and bounced,” she wrote. “This highly respected, award-winning actor had his testicles hanging from his unzipped fly.”
the Screaming The star said she wasn’t physically hurt by the interaction, but she was definitely distraught. “But the gum on the pants was a head scratcher,” she wrote. “It didn’t hurt me, and I was sure it was a drunken prank, but I’ve never seen a grown man do something like that. I was shocked.”
Panettiere admitted that she did not tell her friend, who attended the party with her, about the incident because she felt “the moment had passed,” adding that she had come to the conclusion that “some older men have just grown up without any manners.”
in This is me: an accountwhich hits bookstores on May 19 nashville The actress speaks candidly about her past trauma, the realities of child stardom, drug use and her road to recovery, among other personal and professional struggles.
Ahead of its release, Panettiere spoke with Hollywood Reporterwhere she shared why she chose to name some celebrities in her memoir, while keeping others anonymous, like an Oscar winner.
“It was a bad look for them [the people I didn’t name] “They were generally people in my field,” she said. “They are people I could meet again. I didn’t want to put myself in that situation. Things happened a long time ago, but it was to protect me and my company from being sued by some very angry celebrities.”
