Ben Affleck Is Accused of Groping Actress Hilarie Burton

The pressure building on Ben Affleck over Harvey Weinstein’s Hollywood sexual-predation scandal exploded this morning after the actress Hilarie Burton claimed she was groped by the actor during his appearance on MTV’s Total Request Live, which she was then hosting, back in 2003.
Burton’s allegation, made on Twitter, came just hours after Affleck issued a carefully worded statement condemning Weinstein’s alleged three decades of assault and harassment of actresses, including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Affleck’s statement, which came after five days of studied silence, was quickly slammed by Rose McGowan, the actress who has been instrumental in exposing Weinstein.
McGowan implied she had told Affleck all about her experience with Weinstein, and that he had reacted in a way that suggested he knew Weinstein was making a habit of harassing women. (Affleck and McGowan co-starred in the 1998 film Phantoms, which was distributed by Weinstein’s Miramax and released a year after an alleged episode between Weinstein and McGowan at a Sundance hotel room resulted in a $100,000 payout to McGowan.)

When a fan tweeted that Affleck might as well have “kept quiet,” another Twitter user wrote: “He also grabbed Hilarie Burton’s breasts on TRL once. Everyone forgot though.”

Burton, who starred in the show One Tree Hill, quickly jumped into the thread, confirming that she recalled the incident.

Hilarie then wrote: “I was a kid.”