New Details Emerge About X-MEN Director Bryan Singer Sexual Abuse Claims; Fox Responds
Things have taken a sinister turn in the accusations surrounding X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer, with alleged victim Michael Egan now revealing further details about his claims that he was raped by Singer and several other men when he was a minor. Fox have also responded.
Above is video from the press conference held today by lawyer Jeff Herman and alleged sexual abuse victim Michael Egan. His claims about the Usual Suspects and X-Men: Days of Future Past director are alarming to say the least, and ABC have already distanced themselves from Bryan Singer by removing his name from all promotional material for upcoming drama series Black Box. As well as claiming that he was forced into a number of sex acts (at gunpoint in one instance), Egan claims that Singer supplied him with drugs and alcohol, forced him to inhale cocaine, pushed Egan into a swimming pool, later held his head underwater, and repeatedly raped him. All of this was combined with promises of work in Singer's films.
The filmmaker is of course innocent until proven guilty, and it's unknown whether any legal action will be taken following the $300,000 lawsuit. 20th Century Fox (the studio responsible for the X-Men franchise) released a brief statement about the allegations, stating: "These are serious allegations, and they will be resolved in the appropriate forum. This is a personal matter, which Bryan Singer and his representatives are addressing separately." It very much sounds like they're distancing themselves from the director ahead of the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The photos below don't exactly look good either!
Bear in mind that nothing has been proven as of yet and these are all just accusations. Singer’s lawyer, Marty Singer, called the lawsuit "absurd and defamatory" and "completely without merit." What this means for X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse remains to be seen.
UPDATE: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Egan filed a lawsuit in 2000 over alleged sexual abuse at the site of a 1999 party, naming various defendants but not director Bryan Singer. As a result, Singer's attorney responded with, "If Bryan had done anything wrong, he would have been included in the previous lawsuit." A fair point, but Egan's own attorney claims that Egan did name the X-Men director at the time. This sort of back and fore arguing is to be expected, so it's now a case of waiting and seeing. Meanwhile, Deadline reports that Singer has dropped out of a scheduled appearance at this weekend’s WonderCon in Anaheim, with writer Simon Kinberg now taking his place.