Jason Bateman’s wife, Amanda Anka, has accused celebrity hotelier André Balazs of sexual misconduct.
The New York Times reported on Thursday, November 9, that the Lost Highway actress was celebrating the release of her husband’s film Horrible Bosses at Balazs’ Chiltern Firehouse hotel in London in November 2014 when the 60-year-old businessman slipped his hand under her skirt and grabbed her crotch.
“On behalf of Jason Bateman and Amanda Anka, we can confirm that the account of André Balazs’ outrageous and vile behavior on that night in London is factual,” the couple’s rep confirmed in a statement to the newspaper. “His actions were dealt with at that time.”
The Times reported that Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day were also at the event, and Anka, 48, told them about Balazs’ alleged actions at the time. “I witnessed behavior by André Balazs that was inappropriate and offensive,” Day’s wife, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, said in a statement. Bateman, 48, reportedly confronted Balazs and spit gum in his face after he learned about the alleged encounter. The couple left the hotel soon after.
Anka was just one of the women named in the report. Former Chateau Marmont employee named Sarah claimed to the Times that Balazs, her boss at the time, pinned her against a wall, covered her mouth and pushed his fingers into her vagina after having dinner together in the spring of 1991.
An unnamed 26-year-old female media executive also came forward. She claimed to the paper that the hotelier, who dated Chelsea Handler on and off from 2011 to 2013, followed her into a bathroom during New York Fashion Week in September 2013. He allegedly reached between her legs and grabbed her crotch without consent. “I was humiliated,” she recalled.
Us Weekly has reached out to Balazs’ rep for comment. He did not immediately respond to the Times.
