Earlier: “Sex and the City” star Chris Noth, made iconic for his role of Big in the original series and the reboot “And Just Like That,” has been accused of sexual assault by two women. In a new report at the The Hollywood Reporter, Kim Masters writes that two women using the pseudonyms Zoe, now 40, and Lily, now 31, were approached months ago by the outlet but were inclined to come forward amid the recent “And Just Like That” revival on HBO Max. The incidents allegedly occurred in Los Angeles in 2004 and New York in 2015.
“I’m not sure how you go about this sort of story and how you find the other victims,” Lily wrote in an email to THR, which later heard from Zoe in October. Lily said, “seeing that he was reprising his role in ‘Sex and the City’ set off something in me. For so many years, I buried it.” She then decided it was time “to try to go public with who he is.” Noth provided this statement to THR: “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.” At 22 years old, Zoe worked at a high-profile firm in Los Angeles where Noth regularly conducted business. “He would walk by my desk and flirt with me. He somehow got my number from the directory and was leaving messages on my work phone. My boss was like, ‘Mr. Big’s leaving messages on your voicemail,’” she said. That (now former) boss told THR she saw Noth talking to Zoe, who shared “flirty voicemails” with her boss. Per THR, “The ex-boss says she thought it odd that Noth, who was 49 at the time, had gotten Zoe’s number and left those messages but says she didn’t find it alarming.” “This was peak ‘Sex and the City,’” Zoe said. “He was like a god to us.” Allegedly, Noth invited Zoe to the pool at his West Hollywood apartment (though he lived in New York at the time). After visiting his apartment, Zoe alleges that Noth at one point kissed her, but things escalated when he “pulled her toward him, moved her toward the bed, pulled off her shorts and biking bottom, and began to rape her from behind.” “It was very painful and I yelled out, ‘Stop!’” Zoe said. “And he didn’t. I said, ‘Can you at least get a condom?’ and he laughed at me.”
When it was over, she said, “I realized there was blood on my shirt. I got out of there. I went to my friend’s apartment [in the same building].” That friend told THR that Zoe was “strikingly different” after returning from Noth’s place. “She went right into the powder room. When she came out she was very aloof, kind of cool. She’s a very gregarious, sweet, friendly person. It was a very weird change.” The friend took Zoe to Cedars-Sinai, where Zoe said she was assaulted. “I had stitches. Two police officers came. I wouldn’t say who it was,” she said. At the hospital, “They gave me a little crisis counseling brochure and some medicine.” Zoe said that she went on to have nightmares and flashbacks, and couldn’t concentrate at work. She sought counseling from the UCLA Rape Crisis Center in 2006. “I had buried it as long as I could, and then I really wasn’t doing well and finally went to the treatment the ER had recommended,” she said. Lily, meanwhile, was a server in the VIP section of former NYC nightclub No.8 in 2015 when she met Noth. “I was truly star-struck,” she said. “He was hitting on me, for sure. I was flattered. I knew he was married, which is shameful of me to admit.” Lily was then 25, and Noth 60, when he asked her out. When she later met him for dinner, the kitchen appeared closed, and so they had wine at the bar. Lily ended up going to his apartment, which was “an amazing place. We were listening to music, and he has all these books about art and fashion. He tried to make out with me. I cautiously entertained it. He’s older and looked older. He kept trying and trying and trying, and I should have said no more firmly and left. And then the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants and he was standing in front of me.” After that, she alleges he thrust his penis into her mouth. She said, next thing she knew, “He was having sex with me from the back in a chair. We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened.” After it was over, she said, “I went to the bathroom and put on my skirt. I was feeling awful. Totally violated. All of my dreams with this star I loved for years were gone.” IndieWire has reached out to representatives at HBO, which aired “Sex and the City” and now “And Just Like That” at HBO Max, for comment. Read the full story over at THR. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
