Linda Lavin Says She Was Sexally Harassed On Set Of TV Movie: ‘It Was Physical And It Was Disgusting’

etcanada.com:

Linda Lavin has said she was the victim of sexual harassment while working on the set of 1987’s “Lena: My 100 Children”. Lavin, 84, who played Lena Kuchler-Silberman in the TV movie, told Page Six: “There was sexual harassment by a very powerful man on the production team, and I was a victim of it, and it was physical and it was disgusting. “I went to the women on the crew and said, ‘Will you go to the union with me?’ And they said, ‘We’ll lose our jobs [if we do], and so I was alone with it and I was scared.” Lavin explained how there were other instances that “happened in more subtle ways,” but she insisted she didn’t feel like she could do anything about it at the time. “The difference is now I do [speak up] because of those women who came forward in the last few years and because I got my self-esteem back,” she told the publication, saying the “rules are firm” and “clarified” now. READ MORE: Rebel Wilson Shares Pre-MeToo Experiences Of Sexual Harassment “We have support and regulations,” she said. “I come from a generation of women who brushed it off and swept it under the rug.” ET Canada has contacted NBC, which aired “Lena: My 100 Children”, for comment.

Elsewhere in the interview, the “Being the Ricardos” star also spoke about her role as single mother/waitress Alice Hyatt/Mrs.

Walden in the hit ’70s/’80s series “Alice”. READ MORE: Sheryl Crowe Alleges Sexual Harassment From Michael Jackson’s Manager While She Toured As Backup Singer She said, “‘Alice’ opened up the world of social and political realities to me, and ‘Alice’ spoke to those realities.

Single mothers, working women in the blue- and pink-collar jobs — which, by the way, are 80 per cent of all the women who work in this country — and