Everything you need to know about the lawsuit alleging that the X-Men: Days of Future Past director drugged and sexually abused an underage boy in 1999.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters / Reuters
Scarcely a month before the release of the fourth X-Men film directed by Bryan Singer, a bombshell lawsuit dropped in federal court threatens to overshadow the film's debut. The complaint alleges — in extensive and at times stomach-turning detail — a series of brutal sexual assaults over about two years by Singer on an aspiring actor, Michael Egan, who was between 15 and 17 years old at the time.
In a press conference in Los Angeles Thursday, Egan, now 31, said he was treated like "a piece of meat." He said, "I was raped numerous times ... by numerous individuals."
Singer did not immediately speak on the allegations, but an attorney for the director told media that the charges were "completely without merit." A call to Singer's office was not returned.
The timing is lousy for 20th Century Fox, the studio behind X-Men: Days of Future Past, but attorneys for the plaintiff claim the suit was filed now in order to beat the 15-year statute of limitations in the case, which would expire before the end of the month.
But it's far worse for Singer. The lawsuit suddenly spotlights the director's long-rumored reputation for sexual adventures involving much younger males, one that has been fodder for underground bloggers for years. That proclivity was heavily implied in a 1997 lawsuit filed by several underage actors who claimed Singer obliged them to film a shower scene in the buff while shooting his film, Apt Pupil.
The new lawsuit goes far beyond unwilling nudity, however.
Over 13 pages, it alleges that the 48-year-old Singer, then in his early thirties, repeatedly raped Egan, who was at that time an underaged model and would-be actor. Plying the teenager with alcohol, cocaine, and physical force, the complaint says, Singer and a variety of other men sexually abused, terrorized, and threatened Egan in 1998 and 1999 in California and Hawaii.
The filing is not a criminal indictment, and it makes no mention of why charges were never pressed. It is a civil lawsuit seeking "an amount exceeding" $75,000 in monetary compensation from Singer, as the only named defendant. Here are the key elements of the suit.
Bryan Singer (right) directs Patrick Stewart on the set of X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Alan Markfield
Battery, assault, infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy by unreasonable intrusion, according to the complaint. But this is a civil lawsuit, not a criminal case, and what Egan is seeking is monetary compensation. The cops are not involved, and there is no indication they will be.
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