BY: Denver Sean
Published 3 years ago
Singer Lisa Gentile has come forward to accuse Chris Noth of sexual assault.
via People:
During a Thursday press conference, led by her attorney Gloria Allred, Gentile shared an emotional statement claiming that Noth, 67, assaulted her in 2002.
“I first met Chris Noth when I began frequenting Da Marino restaurant in New York City in 1998. He was a regular there and good friends with the owner Pasquale Marino. I would often see Chris dining and hanging out there when I would visit Da Marino with my family and my friends. Eventually, Chris and I started conversing and we became acquaintances. We would talk mostly about music and show business in the neighborhood,” she began.
Gentile continued, “Then on a Saturday night, in early 2002, we were all hanging out at Da Marino. Around midnight, I was getting ready to leave. Chris offered me a ride home and I said, ‘Okay.’ When we arrived at my apartment, he asked if he could come up. I told him I had nothing to offer him to drink and he said, ‘That’s okay.’ He just wanted to see where I lived. He came upstairs. We entered and we went into the kitchen. He wanted to see the rest of the apartment, but I didn’t show him because my roommates were sleeping. He used the restroom and I found some old box wine and poured him a glass.”
Gentile went on to claim that Noth began touching and kissing her, despite her protests.
“He started kissing me almost right away. Then he leaned against the kitchen countertop and forcibly pulled me against him. He was slobbering all over me. I quickly became uncomfortable. Then he became more aggressive and put both hands on my breasts and began squeezing them very hard over my shirt. He quickly went under my shirt, and began squeezing them even harder over my bra with his fingers grabbing the exposed skin, not covered by my bra. Then he pushed my bra up with both of his hands,” she said.
“I grabbed his hands with my hands and tried to stop him,” Gentile added. “I kept pushing his hands down while he was pushing mine up. I was trying to get him to stop. Then he forced my hands to pull up his shirt exposing his belly, and then even harder he pushed my hands down toward his penis. I finally managed to push him away and get out of his grasp and yell ‘No, I don’t want this.’ He became extremely angry and started screaming and calling me a tease and a bitch. He stormed out of my apartment.”
Gentile said that when Noth left her apartment, she woke up her roommate and best friend and told her what happened. The next morning, she said she got a call from Noth.
“He warned me that if I ever told a soul about what happened the night before that he would ruin my career, that I would never sing again and that he would blacklist me in the business. He hung up on me and I immediately called my mother and father crying,” she said.
“I was afraid to come forward because of Mr. Noth’s power and his threats to ruin my career. I’m speaking out now in support of the other four women who have courageously come forward before me. I feel that we should have our day in court to seek to hold Mr. Noth accountable for what he did — and also speaking out to ensure the rights of my nieces, my goddaughter and future victims of sexual harassment and assault,” Gentile concluded.
A rep for Noth had no immediate comment when reached by PEOPLE.
Allred, 80, also spoke during the press conference and mentioned the statement Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis recently issued in the wake of the multiple sexual assault allegations against Noth which first surfaced in a Hollywood Reporter article last week.
“We are deeply saddened to hear the allegations against Chris Noth,” Noth’s And Just Like That… costars wrote in the joint statement shared on social media Monday.
The Sex and the City stars continued: “We support the women who have come forward and shared their painful experiences. We know it must be a very difficult thing to do and we commend them for it.”
Allred called upon the three actresses to support the Adult Survivors Act in New York, which “would create a one year look back window for adult survivors of adult sexual abuse to hold those who have sexually victimized them accountable,” she said.
“Lisa and I appreciate their words of support for the previous accusers of Chris Noth and now we urge Sarah, Cynthia and Kristin to take action to speak out in support of the Adult Survivors Act as Lisa and I are doing today,” Allred said, after noting that the statute of limitations is up on Gentile’s case, meaning she cannot pursue a criminal case against him.
In addition, Allred said Gentile “has not been in touch with the other accusers, and she has not been in touch with the cast of And Just Like That,” adding, “I don’t know if she’s watched And Just Like That but I do know that she did find it upsetting to see him in the news recently and be reminded of what she alleges happened to her. Definitely, it was triggering for Lisa.”
Gentile’s allegation comes one week after two women accused Noth of sexually assaulting them, giving their accounts to THR for an article that was published on Dec. 16. According to one woman, who spoke under the pseudonym Zoe, Noth allegedly raped her in a Los Angeles apartment in 2004. She claimed they met at a high-profile firm in L.A. with ties to celebrities like Noth.
Another woman, using the pseudonym Lily, claimed Noth invited her to his New York City apartment in 2015 after they had dinner and drinks. Lily, who was 25 at the time, said she met The Good Wife alum while working as a server at a local nightclub.
In a previous statement, Noth, who has been married to Tara Wilson since 2012, denied the allegations and called both situations “consensual.”
“The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,” he said. “These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”
On Dec. 17, a third woman came forward with sexual assault allegations against Noth. In a report published by the Daily Beast, a woman, who wished to remain anonymous but used the pseudonym Ava, told the outlet that when she was 18, Noth had sexually assaulted her while she was working at a New York City restaurant in 2010.
Noth denied the third woman’s account in a statement. “The story is a complete fabrication, and the alleged accounts detailed throughout read like a piece of bad fiction,” his rep said. “As Chris stated yesterday, he has and would never cross that line.”
After news of the allegations surfaced, Universal Television and CBS confirmed that Noth will no longer be filming episodes of The Equalizer. Noth will be seen in one upcoming episode that has already been filmed, as well as future repeats of episodes that have already aired.
Last Friday, PEOPLE confirmed that Noth’s talent agency, A3 Artists Agency, also dropped him.
Chris Noth is done for.