Actor Kip Pardue was fined $6,000 by the Hollywood union SAG after being found guilty of “serious misconduct” for allegedly masturbating in front of a horrified female co-star, it emerged Sunday.
The “Remember the Titans” actor, 43, was accused of sexual harassment on the set of the made-for-TV movie “Mogulettes” in May of last year by actress Sarah Scott, 35, who says he moved her hand onto his aroused crotch while they lay under the covers on set.
The actress, who was clad in underwear and nipple pasties at the time, alleges that the actor then masturbated in front of her once they were alone in a dressing room.
Scott, who played Courtney Love in 2015’s “Soaked in Bleach” for TV, told the Los Angeles Times that she filed a police report but then did not want to press charges.
She instead lodged a formal complaint with the actors union, SAG-AFTRA, which found Pardue “guilty of serious misconduct” during a private hearing of its disciplinary committee, according to a letter Scott showed the Times.
Another actress, Andrea Bogart, gave an affidavit to the panel claiming that Pardue left her in “utter shock” when he masturbated in front of her, too, after a scene for TV’s “Ray Donovan” in 2014, according to the report.
The committee’s decision “censures and admonishes” Pardue for “inappropriate and unprofessional conduct” and fined him $6,000, which could be halved if he takes anti-sexual harassment training, Scott told the paper.
The matter would have remained secret — never shared with Pardue’s future co-stars — had Scott not spoken out publicly, she said.
“Overall, I’m OK with it, but it’s a weird feeling. I don’t know if I’m supposed to feel good about the punishment or not,” she told the Times.
“I would have liked to have seen a couple of years’ suspension, but this is a step in the right direction.
“What was the most important for me was that others who come forward in the future know that the union is willing to take these complaints seriously and create a space where they can be heard.”
A SAG-AFTRA spokesperson would not discuss with the Times any “specifics regarding disciplinary matters due to the confidentiality of such cases.”
A rep for Pardue told the paper that he “never engaged in any nonconsensual behavior.”