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« on: January 10, 2018, 03:54:33 am »
During a 1997 advanced private screening of Good Will Hunting, I sexually propositioned Leonard Maltin.
Nothing came of the incident and we both professionally parted ways in January of the following year. It's been nearly twenty years and I haven't really had the proper time or place to discuss what happened. I don't work in the industry (print journalism at the time, specifically entertainment reviews) in any way anymore, so I technically don't have anything to lose by discussing this incident, other than not being believed. I don't particularly care if you all don't believe me, because frankly I just need to get it off my chest.
Leonard was not bad to work with on a day to day basic - and he wasn't ever really touchy-feely or creepy in ANY way, believe it or not. I was a college undergraduate who was lucky enough to intern for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which sounds exciting, but it was actually a bit mundane (literally Leonard Maltin was the most exciting part of the job). It mostly involved shadowing advisory board members during film screenings, most of the time was spent jotting notes regarding specific points in the film - I remember having to write down a lot of times (down to the second) for review purposes, etc. Basically, it was training on how to manage your time when you have hundreds of films to re-watch during awards season, which was as bland as it sounds.
The screenings were usually for movies we'd seen a few times, typically the reviewer would watch it on their own and then group up with either an intern or another writer to work out what they were going to report on or use for their end of the year vote discussions. Going with Leonard wasn't a big deal because he was generally a very encouraging guy. I mean it when I say my proposition came out of nowhere. All I did was show him my erect penis.