Terry Crews Speaks Out After Talent Agent That Allegedly Groped Him Returns to Work Following Suspension
Terry Crews is speaking out against Adam Venit — the high level Hollywood executive who allegedly groped the Brooklyn-Nine-Nine actor — amid news that the agent has returned to work.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Venit — who is employed by talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) — had returned to work after serving a one-month unpaid suspension following Crews’ allegations against him.
“SOMEONE GOT A PASS,” Crews wrote on Twitter Monday in response to THR’s report.
SOMEONE GOT A PASS https://t.co/yLPwpWGtT8
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) November 27, 2017
Crews then shared a letter written by co-CEO of WME Ari Emanuel that was published by The Huffington Post in 2006, in which Emanuel “demanded” that Mel Gibson be black-listed following the actor’s anti-Semitic remarks. Crews claimed that he sent a copy to Emanuel, only he updated it to be about Venit.
“Copy of the actual @HuffPost letter I gave @AriEmanuel in which he DEMANDED Mel Gibson be blacklisted for anti-Semitic remarks. I exchanged Adam Venit for Mel, and sexual assault for anti-Semitic. [Emmanuel] said ‘it’s different’ and handed the letter back to me,” Crews wrote.
A representative for Crews did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Copy of the actual @HuffPost letter I gave @AriEmanuel in which he DEMANDED Mel Gibson be blacklisted for anti-Semitic remarks.
I exchanged Adam Venit for Mel, and sexual assault for anti-Semitic.
He said “it’s different” and handed the letter back to me. pic.twitter.com/7wwt4nskEU
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) November 27, 2017
In October, amid mounting allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, Crews alleged that in 2016, at a Hollywood function, a “high level Hollywood executive” had “groped my privates.”
“Jumping back I said What are you doing?! My wife saw everything n we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk,” alleged Crews, 49, adding in another tweet, “I was going to kick his a– right then — but I thought twice about how the whole thing would appear.”
“‘240 lbs. Black Man stomps out Hollywood Honcho’ would be the headline the next day,” he wrote. “Only I probably wouldn’t have been able to read it because I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN JAIL. So we left.”
Crews said he spent the rest of the evening and the next day speaking to “everyone I knew that worked with” the exec about what happened, and added that the man behind the alleged assault called him and apologized.
“But [he] never really explained why he did what he did,” said Crews, adding, “I decided not 2 take it further becuz I didn’t want 2b ostracized— par 4 the course when the predator has power n influence. I let it go. And I understand why many women who this happens to let it go.”
Terry Crews opens up about his experience with sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood. This is why telling these stories is important. pic.twitter.com/Dv2UCwUDLD
— Katie Barnes (@katie_barnes3) October 10, 2017
Following his decision to file a report with the Los Angeles Police Department in November, Crews named his alleged assailant as Venit — who had reportedly gone on leave from the company earlier that month — during a sit-down interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America. WME confirmed to ABC News that the agent “has been suspended following the internal investigation into the matter.”
During the interview, Crews revealed that he had dismissed the incident until the claims against Weinstein put sexual assault and harassment in the news.
“When the Weinstein thing started happening, I got PTSD,” he said. “I was going, ‘Oh my god, this exact thing happened to me. I understand why they won’t come forward.’ And I’m gonna tell you, a lot of times people go, ‘Why didn’t you come forward sooner?’ When a person of forward breaks that boundary and violates that boundary, you’re a prisoner of war.”
He said he will not stand for people asking him why he didn’t come forward sooner or blaming the victim. “I will not be shamed. I did nothing wrong, nothing,” he said.