Gossip Girl Star Accused of Sexual Assault

[WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault.]

As more and more reports of sexual harassment and assault filter out of Hollywood, Ed Westwick is the latest male star to be accused of rape. U.S. actor Kristina Cohen has made the shocking claim in a lengthy Facebook post, in which she details the alleged assault by the former Gossip Girl star.

Cohen says she met Westwick three years ago at a dinner party he was hosting. She was there because her then-boyfriend, a producer, was a friend of the actor. In the Facebook post, Cohen claims that Westwick made a lewd comment at dinner and when she was resting in a guest room he allegedly raped her.

You can read Cohen's Facebook post, below:

I was briefly dating a producer who was friends with the actor Ed Westwick. It was this producer who brought me up to Ed’s house where I met Ed for the first time. I wanted to leave when Ed suggested “we should all fuck”. But the producer didn’t want to make Ed feel awkward by leaving. Ed insisted we stay for dinner. I said I was tired and wanted to leave, trying to get out of what was already an uncomfortable situation. Ed suggested I nap in the guest bedroom. The producer said we would stay for just another 20 more minutes to smooth everything over, and then we could leave.

So I went and laid down in the guest room where I eventually fell asleep, I was woken up abruptly by Ed on top of me, his fingers entering my body. I told him to stop, but he was strong. I fought him off as hard as I could but he grabbed my face in his hands, shaking me, telling me he wanted to fuck me. I was paralyzed, terrified. I couldn’t speak, I could no longer move. He held me down and raped me.

Cohen claims she told her boyfriend about it but he supposedly accused her of being an "active participant" and that if she went public with the alleged rape or report it to the police, "Ed will have people come after me, destroy me, and that I could forget about an acting career."

Westwick is the latest actor in recent weeks to be accused of sexual assault, following the multiple allegation levied against Harvey Weinstein, James Toback, Brett Ratner, and Kevin Spacey. Netflix has cut all ties with Spacey, after he was accused of predatory behaviour against numerous young actors since the '90s, and have said they will only continue to make House of Cards if he is not a part of it.

The BBC may be faced with a similar decision with the regard to the rape allegation against Westwick. He is not only the star of their BBC Three comedy series White Gold, but also one of the cast members for the channel's latest Agatha Christie adaptation. Ordeal by Innocence - starring Bill Nighy, Alice Eve and Matthew Goode - is a three-part drama series set to air on BBC One in the UK this Christmas, and on Amazon in the U.S. in January, but could be cut from the schedule to avoid bad publicity.

Amazon certainly wouldn't want to contribute to anymore bad press for their streaming service after their head of video content, Roy Price, resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment of Isa Hackett, the producer of Amazon show The Man In The High Castle. The BBC also have a sordid history regarding sexual assault and abuse after it was revealed that former presenters, the late Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris, had engaged in paedophilia during their time working for the broadcasting company. The world will be watching to see how both respond to these fresh allegations of one of their stars.

UPDATE: Westwick has now denied these allegations through his various social media accounts.