John Oliver says he regrets his valiant but cringe-worthy confrontation with Dustin Hoffman in New York over sexual harassment didn’t result in “something constructive.”
The HBO host sparred with Hoffman at the 92nd Street Y during an awkward Q&A that was intended as an introduction to a 20th-anniversary screening of the film “Wag the Dog.” Hoffman had issued an apology in November following accusations that he made crude sexual comments and inappropriately touched production assistant Anna Graham Hunter, who was then 17, during the 1985 making of a TV movie version of “Death of a Salesman.”
In early December, Oliver, quizzed Hoffman at the Y panel, asking, “You’ve made one statement in print, does that feel like enough to you?”
Hoffman replied, “First of all, it didn’t happen the way she reported.”
The “Last Week Tonight” host didn’t back off, saying, “It’s that part of the response to this stuff that pisses me off. 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 audience. Hoffman then complained, “You’ve put me on display here. You have indicted me . . . That’s not innocent until proven guilty . . . So-called, alleged comments that are made are truth now. And, if you try to defend it, you’re guilty.”
Hoffman also proffered, “Have you seen ‘Tootsie’? How could I have made that movie if I didn’t have incredible respect for women?”
But in a new episode of UK talk show “The Russell Howard Hour,” Oliver says he “failed” to get any answers out of the Oscar-winning actor. “It didn’t really go anywhere constructive, so the whole thing made me feel sad,” Oliver said, adding, “I tried and failed . . . It became about my questions rather than his answers. My questions were not particularly remarkable, but his answers were kind of not great.”