Director and screenwriter Paul Schrader, best known for films like “Taxi Driver,” “American Gigolo” and “Raging Bull,” has been accused of reneging on a settlement with his former assistant over claims he sexually assaulting and harassed her for years, according to civil court documents. Schrader allegedly broke a confidential settlement he agreed to in February with “Jane Doe,” his 26-year-old former assistant, in a motion filed Thursday night in New York State Supreme Court. The civil suit accuses Schrader of breach of contract for violating the settlement over the alleged sexual assault and harassment, which Doe said happened from 2021 to 2024.
Paul Schrader, the screenwriter of “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull,” has been accused in a legal filing of sexually harassing his former assistant, and of backing out of an agreement to pay her a settlement. The 26-year-old woman, identified only as Jane Doe, alleges that Schrader grabbed her and kissed her against her will while they were at the Cannes Film Festival last year for the premiere of his latest film, “Oh, Canada.” She protested and was able to free herself and flee the room, she alleges. Three days later, she alleges that Schrader, 78, summoned her to his hotel room, claiming that he was “dying,” and then exposed his penis to her.
The former assistant, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, sued the filmmaker and his production company on Thursday. She is seeking a judge’s order to enforce the agreement after Schrader said he couldn’t go through with it. The terms, including a monetary payment, were not disclosed. “This is an open-and-shut settlement enforcement matter,” Doe’s lawyer, Gregory Chiarello, wrote in court papers accompanying the breach of contract claim. Schrader’s lawyer, Philip J. Kessler, deemed the lawsuit “desperate, opportunistic and frivolous” and said many of the allegations in it are false or materially misleading. “We absolutely deny that there was ever a sexual relationship of any kind between Mr. Schrader and his former assistant, and we deny that Mr. Schrader ever made an attempt to have a sexual relationship of any kind with his former assistant,” Kessler said.
