In its opening season, TV series Gossip Girl showcases a storyline in which Ed Westwick’s onscreen character, Chuck Bass attempts to force himself on a minor before being stopped.
In its opening season, TV series Gossip Girl showcases a storyline in which Ed Westwick’s onscreen character, Chuck Bass attempts to force himself on a minor before being stopped.
Years later, with the show having finished a successful six-year run, allegations of assault against Ed Westwick have emerged in real life. While Hollywood is going through a massive sexual assault scandal involving the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Westwick is simply the latest entrant in this club of horrors.
According to an exclusive report in Deadline, Westwick is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department following allegations of rape made by actress Kristina Cohen. The actress maintains that she was assaulted by Westwick in 2014 while the actor denied the same on Twitter.
Deadline reports: “Two contemporary witnesses have also come forward to support her (Cohen) allegation. Former child actor Blaise Godbe Lipman, a friend of Cohen’s, told Deadline that she told him about the incident the day after the alleged rape. It was mid-February 2014, a few days after Valentine’s Day. Longtime friends, Lipman said Cohen had left her car at his house before going to Westwick’s home in the Hollywood Hills. ‘She came over to my home the following morning and told me everything,’ he said. ‘She was in a state of shock. It was without a doubt a rape.’”
Though pressured to keep the assault quiet given Westwick’s popularity, Cohen ultimately stated on the matter: “It’s been an absolute rollercoaster going through this, but I know that I’m serving the greater good and that it’s for the collective of all of us to have a voice and to create radical change in the industry. I want to deliver a message of restoration for all the women going through this, and to show that we can heal our relationships with men and women.”
