"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver questioned actor Dustin Hoffman at a Tribeca Film panel on Dec. 4 about sexual harassment allegations made against him. (The Washington Post) 
 
 NEW YORK — HBO host John Oliver hammered Dustin Hoffman about allegations of sexual harassment and the actor fired back with a ferocious defense, as a seemingly benign screening became an explosive conversation about Hollywood sexual misconduct on Monday night. 
 
 “This is something we’re going to have to talk about because … it’s hanging in the air,” Oliver said to Hoffman at the discussion, an anniversary screening of the film “Wag the Dog.” He was alluding to an allegation made by Anna Graham Hunter last month that Hoffman groped her and made inappropriate comments when she was a 17-year-old intern on the set of the 1985 TV movie “Death of a Salesman.” 
 
 “It’s hanging in the air?” Hoffman said. “From a few things you’ve read, you’ve made an incredible assumption about me,” he noted, adding sarcastically, “You’ve made the case better than anyone else can. I’m guilty.” 
 
 The “Last Week Tonight” personality was moderating a 20th-anniversary screening panel at the 92nd Street Y on behalf of the Tribeca Institute, with stars Hoffman, Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal and director Barry Levinson on the stage. About halfway through the hour-long talk, Oliver brought up the issue to Hoffman, saying he found the actor’s statements about the matter wanting. Nearly the entire rest of the discussion was then dominated by Oliver, Hoffman and the subject of sexual harassment. 
 
 Hoffman had offered a conditional apology at the time of the allegation, and on Monday he underscored an “if” included in that statement, noting several times that he didn’t really believe he had done anything wrong. He said that he had not engaged in groping, that he didn’t recall meeting Graham Hunter and that all his comments on set were simply how members of “a family” talked to one another. 
 
 “I still don’t know who this woman is,” Hoffman said. “I never met her; if I met her, it was in concert with other people.” 
 
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 Oliver dismissed that as insufficient, then cited Hoffman’s response at the time of the allegation that the actor’s behavior on set was “not reflective of” who he really is. 
 
 “It’s ‘not reflective of who I am’ — it’s that kind of response to this stuff that pisses me off,” Oliver said. “It is reflective of who you were. If you’ve given no evidence to show it didn’t [happen] then there was a period of time for a while when you were a creeper around women. It feels like a cop-out to say ‘It wasn’t me.’ Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?” 
 
 Hoffman accused Oliver of “putting me on display” and said he felt blindsided because neither Oliver nor Tribeca organizers had told him that the moderator would raise the subject. 
 
 Several times, however, Oliver sought to move on and talk about the film, but Hoffman returned to the subject of harassment, growing testy as he said Oliver was not keeping an “open mind” while unquestionably believing accusers. 
 
 “Do you believe this stuff you read?” Hoffman asked. 
 
 “Yes,” Oliver replied. “Because there’s no point in [an accuser] lying.” 
 
 “Well, there’s a point in her not bringing it up for 40 years,” Hoffman said. 
 
 “Oh, Dustin,” Oliver said disapprovingly, putting his head in his hand. 
 
 At one point, Rosenthal tried to jump in and defuse the situation. 
 
 “You also have the way men and women worked together [in the past]; you are in a situation where ‘that was then, this is now,’” Rosenthal said. “[And] what difference is all this going to make? … This conversation doesn’t do any good. We have a platform here. How are we moving [the issue] forward?” 
 
 Oliver, though, said he felt it was imperative to talk about it. “This isn’t fun for me,” the TV personality noted. “[But] there’s an elephant in the room because, this particular incident, a conversation has not been had.” He noted that the film they were gathering to discuss, “Wag The Dog,” dealt with sexual misconduct by a powerful man. 
 
 Rosenthal then said of the film, “It wasn’t produced by Weinstein or Miramax…Kevin Spacey wasn’t starring in it. Let’s look at real sexual criminal predators.” 
 
 “That’s a low bar,” Oliver retorted. 
 
 The back-and-forth mainly centered on the Graham Hunter allegations, and also at times invoked an accusation by Hoffman’s “The Graduate” co-star Katharine Ross that he had groped her on the set of the classic film. It did not manifestly address another claim, by the writer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis, that Hoffman had propositioned her inappropriately in a pitch meeting in 1991. 
 
 The showdown happened as sexual harassment issues continue to roil the entertainment world, with a growing number of men falling under suspicion and being held to account, often publicly. The exchange, however, marked a rarity in the post-Harvey Weinstein era, which has seen accused harassers generally offer short statements in response to allegations, if they respond at all. Very few have engaged in long public conversations about it, and almost none have sounded as defiant as Hoffman did Monday night. 
 
 After the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, more women and men have come forward against a growing list of well-known male figures with similar stories of harassment and assault. (Erin Patrick O'Connor,Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post) 
 
 The conversation grew increasingly angry as it wore on. When Hoffman began talking about his long career, Oliver interjected with “Oh, Jesus.” 
 
 “So now I can’t even finish a sentence?” Hoffman asked. 
 
 Hoffman also cited “Tootsie” as evidence of his feminist bona fides. 
 
 “I would not have made that movie if I didn’t have an incredible respect for women,” Hoffman said. “The theme of the movie is he became a better man by having been a woman.” 
 
 He said he had an awakening of sorts when, dressed as a woman for that film, he was ignored by some men on the set. “I said when I came home to my wife that I never realized men were that were brutal, that men are that obvious,” Hoffman recounted. “They didn’t find me attractive and they just erased me.” 
 
 He added, “What makes me sad is that I grew up in an environment in which we were taught to want the girls on the covers of magazines, the models, and I said to my wife ‘Look at how many interesting women I passed up … look at how many women were erased by me because of the generation I was born.’ That was a very strong reason for me wanting to make that movie. 
 
 “It’s shocking to me you don’t see me more clearly,” he then said to Oliver. “That you go by a couple of things you read.” 
 
 As the panel went on some in the crowd became involved. 
 
 “Move on. Let it go,” one woman could be heard shouting to Oliver. She was soon drowned out by other people, one of whom said “Shame on you.” Another yelled to Oliver, “Thank you for believing women,” to loud cheers. 
 
 Oliver said that he considered not addressing the subject at what was intended as a genial chat but then decided he bore an obligation. 
 
 “I can’t leave certain things unaddressed,” the host said. “The easy way is not to bring anything up. Unfortunately that leaves me at home later at night hating myself. ‘Why the … didn’t I say something? No one stands up to powerful men.’” 
 
 “Am I the powerful man?” Hoffman asked. 
 
 The actor asked why the questioner wouldn’t hear his side. “Keep a kind of open mind if you can, John.” 
 
 “I’m trying,” Oliver said. 
 
 “Well I’m trying harder than you are,” Hoffman shot back. 
 
 Tensions did not cool throughout the session. 
 
 “You weren’t there,” Hoffman said to Oliver about the “Salesman” set. 
 
 “I’m glad [I wasn’t],” the host replied. 
 
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 A teen went missing for days — and was found with a soccer coach hundreds of miles from home ||||| In a striking and raw demonstration of the angst that has accumulated over Hollywood’s sexual harassment scandals, HBO host John Oliver sparred with Dustin Hoffman during an awkward 45-minute Q&A intended as a prologue to a 20th-anniversary screening of the film Wag the Dog. (Check out the video of the exchange below, courtesy of the Washington Post.) 
 
 Tonight’s event at the 92nd Street Y, a benefit for the Tribeca Film Institute, featured Hoffman, Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal and director Barry Levinson in an onstage discussion. About half of the talk surfaced somewhat familiar but nonetheless interesting material about the way the film’s sardonic, David Mamet-scripted take on public-image management and politics has gained new relevance during the Trump Era. In other words, typical Q&A material. 
 
 Then, about 20 minutes in, Oliver brought up the current climate around sexual harassment in show business, saying he was going to go “around the room” to gauge all panelists’ sentiments. (Later, when Hoffman would complain about having been ambushed, Oliver said it was “on the organizers” for not conveying his stated intention to bring up the ultra-hot-button topic.) 
 
 Levinson managed a thoughtful response about the current atmosphere, but it was quickly eclipsed by what followed. Seated next to him was Hoffman, who earlier this fall issued an apology following accusations that he inappropriately touched production assistant Anna Graham Hunter, then 17, during the making of a TV movie version of Death of a Salesman in 1985. 
 
 Warning it was “likely to be the tensest part of the evening,” Oliver started in with Hoffman. The tension would linger for 30 agonizing minutes as the two engaged in an anguished back and forth centering on the actor’s deeds and the response to his response to the allegations. “You’ve made one statement in print,” Oliver said. “Does that feel like enough to you?” Hoffman replied, “First of all, it didn’t happen, the way she reported.” He said his apology over the incident, offered, he said, at the insistence of his reps, was widely misconstrued “at the click of a button.” But the Last Week Tonight host seized on the portion of the actor’s public apology, in which Hoffman said the events that happened on set didn’t reflect who he is as a person. 
 
 “It’s that part of the response to this stuff that pisses me off,” Oliver said. “It is reflective of who you were. You’ve given no evidence to show that it didn’t happen. There was a period of time when you were a creeper around women. It feels like a cop-out to say, ‘Well, this isn’t me.’ Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?”‘ 
 
 Hoffman shot back, “You weren’t there.” Oliver responded, “I’m glad,” drawing gasps from the well-heeled audience, many of whom had paid hefty ticket prices. Heightening the spectacle was the fact it was occurring in the Y’s wood-paneled Kaufmann Concert Hall, an august Upper East Side venue that had last seen an uproar like this when John Ashbery dared to read a poem in free verse. 
 
 After a two-month exegesis of the industry (and other parts of society) confronting decades of sexual misconduct and abuse, what made this exchange unique was the fact that Hoffman came back energetically at Oliver to both defend his reputation and decry the current climate. Accused perpetrators by the dozens have been issuing statements — or, in extreme cases like Harvey Weinstein’s, engaging in legal maneuvers–but an A-list star revealed in this environment has not responded as vigorously as this. 
 
 “You’ve put me on display here,” Hoffman told Oliver, seething but never raising his voice or leaving his seat. “You have indicted me. … That’s not innocent until proven guilty.” 
 
 Hoffman tried to put it in historical context, saying sometimes the atmosphere on set decades ago involved sexually charged banter, which he said was not meant in an offensive way. ‘I don’t love that answer either,” Oliver said, cringing. “What response do you want?” Hoffman demanded. “It doesn’t feel self-reflective in the way it seems the incident demands,” Oliver explained, adding, “I get no pleasure from this conversation. But you and I are not the victims here.” 
 
 When Oliver quoted from an account Hoffman’s accuser wrote, the actor asked Oliver, incredulous, “Do you believe this stuff you’re reading?” Oliver said he did “because she would have no reason to lie.” 
 
 As this went on, the other panelists largely stayed mum. The audience seemed divided — some in the crowd, looking forward to a breezier night re-living a Clintonian satire, took offense at Oliver staying on the issue. “Move on!” one person shouted. “He thinks it’s funny,” sputtered one man as he escorted his wife out of the theatre. Others applauded when Oliver expressed his view. “Thank you for believing women!” one woman called out. The spasms of conflict and accusation were followed by long stretches of silence, during which no one in the theatre knew quite what to do. 
 
 Rosenthal at one point decided to enter the conversation, “as the only women here on this panel.” She turned the focus to the larger struggle and issues like pay inequality and the need for more female representation on boards and executive suites. “We’ve got to start moving that conversation forward,” she said, drawing applause. Oliver would not let it go. “We’re about to watch a movie where sexual harassment is an under-plot and there’s an elephant in the room because this conversation is not being had,” he said, explaining his interest in pursuing the topic. 
 
 Rosenthal fired back, “It wasn’t produced by Weinstein Co. or Miramax, so you don’t have a really big conversation. Kevin Spacey wasn’t starring in it. Let’s look at real sexual criminal predators.” 
 
 After about 15 minutes, Hoffman appeared to have persuaded some in the crowd, but he voluntarily returned to the topic and re-engaged with Oliver. When Levinson and Oliver agreed that social media has distorted politics and culture, Hoffman interjected, “Well, it’s affected you in terms of your feelings about me.” While the audience applauded, the line began a gut-wrenching 15-minute sequence that closed the night. 
 
 “The so-called, alleged comments that are made are truth now,” Hoffman fumed. “And if you try to defend it, you’re guilty.” Oliver granted, “I see where you’re coming from,” but insisted, “it’s a little more complicated than that.” Several times, he expressed anxiety over ruining the audience’s night and the experience of watching the film again. And yet, “I can’t leave certain things unaddressed,” Oliver conceded. “That leads to me at home later tonight hating myself, asking, ‘Why the f–k didn’t I say something? No one stands up to powerful men.'” Hoffman asked Levinson, “Am I the powerful man?” Levinson said, “I wasn’t sure what the reference was, which powerful men.” 
 
 Hoffman then offered examples of the empathy he had always tried to show for characters and colleagues during his 50-year career. “Have you seen Tootsie?” he asked Oliver at one point. When Oliver insisted that he had and that he enjoyed Hoffman’s performance in it, Hoffman told a detailed story about staying in makeup and costume as Dorothy, the film’s title character, after shooting had ended one night and experiencing misogyny first-hand. “How could I have made that movie if I didn’t have incredible respect for women?” he asked. “It’s shocking to me that you don’t see me more clearly.” 
 
 Here’s the exchange:
– As far as Dustin Hoffman is concerned, allegations about him sexually harassing a teen assistant on a movie set in the mid-'80s are a whole lot of nothing—but John Oliver made it into something Monday night. Oliver, host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, was moderating a 20th-anniversary screening of Hoffman's movie Wag the Dog in New York City. The panel—which included those two, plus director Barry Levinson, producer Jane Rosenthal, and Robert De Niro—stuck to what Deadline labels "typical Q&A material" and industry talk for the first half of the 45-minute discussion. But then Oliver noted the sexual misconduct claims were "something we're going to have to talk about because ... it's hanging in the air," per the Washington Post. To which a "defiant" Hoffman replied, "It's hanging in the air? From a few things you've read, you've made an incredible assumption about me." "You weren't there," Hoffman continued, to which Oliver replied: "I'm glad." The back-and-forth, which more or less took over the rest of the talk, became "increasingly angry," with Hoffman insisting he didn't recall even meeting his accuser, saying he felt ambushed by both Oliver and event organizers, and pointing to his movie Tootsie as evidence of his "incredible respect for women." "There's no point in [an accuser] lying," Oliver told Hoffman, who answered, "Well, there's a point in her not bringing it up for 40 years." Oliver said that broaching the subject wasn't pleasant for him, but that it was necessary. Audience reaction was mixed, with some chastising Oliver, though one spectator yelled: "Thank you for believing women!" BuzzFeed notes post-panel reaction on the internet leaned mostly Team Oliver, though some say he shouldn't have blindsided Hoffman at this type of event.