LOS ANGELES — A civil lawsuit charging Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis with raping a publicist has prompted three additional women to come forward with their own sexual misconduct accusations, including another publicist who says he forced her to perform oral sex, then raped her. On Friday, three other women told the Associated Press that Haggis was sexually aggressive toward them, with one of the women saying he raped her. “I need to be inside you,” she recalled him saying, before she managed to run away. Danny Moloshok / Reuters file

When asked about the new accusations, Christine Lepera, attorney for the 64-year-old screenwriter of “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash,” said, “He didn’t rape anybody.”

Haggis has denied the original rape allegation in a counter-complaint to the lawsuit, and said the accuser and her lawyer had demanded a $9 million payment to avoid legal action, which he characterized as extortion. In a phone interview with NBC News on Friday, one of Breest’s lawyers responded to Haggis’ counter-complaint. The friend spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because she still works in the entertainment industry and feared possible retaliation. Be it at a meeting about a television show or after a film event, the women said Haggis found a way to be alone with them, then tried to forcibly kiss them, and either raped them, as another publicist alleges, or intensely harassed them once they'd escaped. The first accuser, named in court documents as publicist Haleigh Breest, has filed a civil lawsuit against the Haggis, alleging that he raped her after luring her back to his Manhattan apartment following a film premiere back in 2013. He was also nominated for writing “Million Dollar Baby” and co-writing “Letters From Iwo Jima,” and he recently directed the 2015 HBO miniseries “Show Me a Hero.”

The new accusers, who were in their late 20s or 30s when the incidents reportedly occurred, all told the AP that Haggis tried to forcibly kiss them.
Four women accuse film and television producer, director, and writer Paul Haggis (Crash and Million Dollar Baby) of sexual misconduct including two rapes.