Adam Horovitz, a member of the Beastie Boys and son to famed playwright Israel Horovitz, has supported the nine women accusing his father of sexual misconduct.
“I believe the allegations against my father are true, and I stand behind the women that made them,” Horovitz, also known as Ad-Rock, said in a statement to the New York Times. A spokesperson for Ad-Rock has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
In the New York Times report, nine women came forward to accuse the playwright of sexual misconduct. One woman said she was 16 when he pressed her against a wall and forcefully kissed her. Another woman said she was 19 years old when Horovitz kissed and fondled her in a car and later raped her.
Horovitz is an award-winning author of more than 70 plays, including “Park Your Car in Harvard Yard” and “The Indian Wants the Bronx,” which starred Al Pacino in 1968.
Horovitz told the New York Times that while he has “a different memory of some of these events, I apologize with all my heart to any woman who has ever felt compromised by my actions, and to my family and friends who have put their trust in me. To hear that I have caused pain is profoundly upsetting, as is the idea that I might have crossed a line with anyone who considered me a mentor.”
In 1993, The Boston Phoenix ran an expose in which six women who were involved with the Gloucester Stage Company as actresses or staff members between 1989 and 1992 said they were sexually harassed by Horovitz. Allegations ranged from offensive language to sexual fondling.
At the time, the board’s president, Barry Weiner, “dismissed the women’s claims as overreactions, saying that today people throw round charges of sexual harassment ‘like manhole covers.’”
According to the Times, Gloucester Stage severed ties with Horovitz last week after learning of Maia Ermansons accusations, who said when she was 21, she met to discuss a theater project with Horovitz when he started kissing her and cupped her breasts, telling her they were “large and beautiful.” She said she had known him since she’d been a little girl.
“I felt close to him like a grandfather, but also he was a somewhat famous guy whose time I felt privileged to have,” Ermansons said. “For the man who represented all that, to treat me the way he did, was the ultimate betrayal.”
Gloucester Stage has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment. A spokesperson for Israel Horovitz hasn’t responded yet either.
Rachael Horovitz, the Oscar-nominated producer of “Moneyball,” is Israel Horovitz’s daughter and Adam’s sister.
Read the New York Times story here.