A Year After Time’s Up, An Alleged Abuser Wins Best Picture

A year after Golden Globes attendees wore black to call attention to sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's annual awards ceremony honoring achievement in film and television gave one of its biggest awards of the night to a man with a history of allegations made against him.

Bohemian Rhapsody took home two major awards Sunday night: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama for star Rami Malek and Best Motion Picture - Drama, which producer Graham King accepted on behalf of the film's cast and crew. Bryan Singer, who directed the film, did not attend the Globes, nor was he mentioned in either Malek or King's acceptance speeches, Deadlinenotes. But Singer, who was fired from the Freddie Mercury biopic two weeks before filming wrapped but remains credited as per Directors Guild guidelines, took to Instagram shortly after the ceremony to thank the HFPA for the win.

"What an honor. Thank you #HollywoodForeignPress," Singer wrote in the caption of a photo taken on the set of Bohemian Rhapsody.

In the age of #MeToo and Time's Up -- when sexual assault accusations against Hollywood power players like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are not only heard but acted upon -- the HPFA's choice to nominate and award Singer carries weight. Just a year ago, the HFPA (which itself weathered a #MeToo revelation about former president Philip Berk allegedly groping Brendan Fraser), said it "stands firmly against sexual harassment" and allowed Golden Globes attendees to speak out against sexual violence through their words and their dress. But in 2019, the show must go on, even if that means granting powerful men accused of abuse even more power to potentially abuse in the future.

At least two men have accused Singer, perhaps best known for directing The Usual Suspects and three installments in the 20th Century Fox X-Men film series, of raping them when they were under 18 years of age. In 2014, Michael F. Egan III filed a lawsuit claiming the director drugged and raped him at a party in Hawaii when he was 17 years old. Singer's attorney dismissed the allegations as "defamatory and false." The lawsuit later fell apart.

Then again in 2017, Cesar Sanchez-Guzman accused Singer of cornering and raping him at a Seattle yacht party when he was also 17. Singer's attorney again denied the allegations as "categorically false." The Los Angeles Times reported Sanchez-Guzman's claims on Dec. 8, four days after Varietyreported that Fox had fired Singer from Bohemian Rhapsody. The studio gave no explanation for the dismissal, but at the time sources told Variety that Singer had failed to show up to set a number of times.

Though Singer denied both Egan and Sanchez-Guzman's allegations, their claims share a number of similarities: that they were underage and at a party attended by powerful men when they say the assaults happened. Those details can also be found in some remarks made by The Real O'Neals star Noah Galvin in a 2016 interview with Vulture, which on their own sound a lot like the product of whisper network rumblings in gay Hollywood.

In response to a question about his dating life, Galvin quipped that "Bryan Singer likes to invite little boys over to his pool and diddle them in the fucking dark of night." Soon after publishing, Vultureredacted Galvin's comments about Singer from the interview, along with additional unrelated remarks about Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet and Arrow's Colton Haynes. Galvin also apologized for his remarks about Singer in a follow-up statement published by Vulture, calling them "false and unwarranted."