Steppin’ Out magazine’s Chaunce Hayden spoke recently with Russian actress Irina Voronina who claims she was the victim of sexual harassment on the set of HBO’s hit show, Entourage.
Voronina says after doing two episodes for the show she was asked to shoot a promo. The shot included Irina and another Russian actress, along with the stars of the show, cruising down Sunset Strip in a limo.
Irina says, “So myself and another actress were acting like we’re having fun in the limo with the roof up. Meanwhile, the boys hands were all over us. But when the cameras stopped rolling we went back to just being ourselves, like any professional actress. I wasn’t looking for anything else. But the boys were very direct about what they wanted to do later. It wasn’t like I was just being hit on. They were hitting on me in a very diminishing way. They made me feel like a piece of meat sitting with a big star.”
She says that she and the other actress decided to tune the men out, but that only made them snide and bitter. “So me and the other actress started to talk in Russian. We didn’t want to be there because there was so much tension going on because we wouldn’t let the boys do anything else.”
Irina adds that the Entourage men then had both her and the other actress fired. “So the boys complained to the director and we were basically told that we weren’t nice to the actors and that we’re fired. We were told to go back to the base camp and sign out.”
She claims that after they were fired they were literally left out on the street. “They said we could drive around in a van for another three hours while they taped a chase scene or we can get out right now in the middle of Sunset strip in evening dresses in the middle of the night. And that’s what they did. They left us standing in the middle of the street.”
Irina doesn’t have any regrets about not giving into their pressure. But she does regret not reporting it.
“The actors were just looking to have sex with me. But I made it clear there would be no after party. What you see on the show is how they really are. They aren’t acting. I didn’t want to be their sex toy so I go fired. Most of the people I work with are extremely professional. I should have called SAG and complained that I was being sexually harassed on the set. But I didn’t know any better at the time. When the camera is off they shouldn’t be touching me. But they didn’t want to stop. I had to tell them to take their hands away when the cameras stopped filming.”
As for who was the slimiest of all the stars? Adrian Grenier.
“The worst offender was the main star of the show. Adrian [Grenier] was the worst when it came to verbal abuse. He kept making nasty comments to me. He got me the most upset. He was the instigator and everybody else played along. He set the mood.”
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Cooper was filling in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, and after asking, “How many guys did you make-out with on the show?” Jillian pawned the question off to her fiance Ed Swiderski who answered stupidly, “It’s like anything, you get used to it.”
