Woman Comes Forward To Say That Francis Ford Coppola DID Harass Her

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | August 2, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | August 2, 2024 |

Earlier this week, the story that director Francis Ford Coppola sexually harassed an extra on the set of his latest film Megalopolis took an unexpected turn when a woman came forward to deny the claims. Variety had shared behind-the-scenes footage of Coppola with an extra, which Deadline then lambasted as out of context when a woman named Rayna Menz claimed to be one of the women shown and that Coppola had never harassed her.

Now, Variety has a piece with another extra from Megalopolis who is saying that Coppola touched and kissed her against her will during the shoot. Lauren Pagone, who appeared in multiple scenes in Megalopolis, said that she was ‘caught off guard’ when it happened. She also said that she was compelled to speak out after Menz’s assertions that nothing untoward happened. ‘I don’t appreciate anybody speaking for me. I would never speak for that actress,’ Pagone said. ‘I’ve kept my mouth shut. I’ve kept quiet. But it’s frustrating that she’s putting out there, ‘Hey, it was great for everyone’ when she doesn’t know what other people were feeling. You can’t speak for anyone but yourself. My experience was different.

Variety added that another cast member had approached them in recent days to confirm that
they saw Coppola kissing ‘multiple women’ during a different scene. ‘The women that I saw being kissed did not see him coming. He just basically grabbed them and planted the kiss on them without any kind of consent,’ they said.

This whole story has been very sad and told in a needlessly messy manner by warring publications all writing under the same corporate umbrella. As I mentioned in my previous piece on the matter, it’s sloppy reporting not to reach out to the women involved in that video because it could have put them at risk to have them exposed to the mainstream without their consent or statement. When you’re working on something as serious as sexual harassment and misconduct, particularly when it involves someone as famous as Coppola, you have to make sure your writing is airtight and that the hurt people at the heart of it are not thrown to the wolves.

So, why didn’t Variety perform due diligence? And why did Deadline decide to go full publicist-speak with their highly florid defense of Coppola that also acted as an attack on a sister publication? Again, these two companies (as well as The Hollywood Reporter) are all owned by the same brand, Penske Media. Is this petty in-fighting between editors over ad revenue quotas? Because it sure doesn’t feel like any of them care for the women involved, extras who didn’t seem to have anyone looking out for them while they were doing their jobs. They should be able to tell their stories and talk to the press without outlets turning it into a game of clickbait table tennis.

Coppola did not respond to Variety’s latest request for comment.