Writer Jenny Lumet: Russell Simmons Sexually Violated Me (Guest Column)

Russell Simmons, a prolific music and TV producer and co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, was accused of sexual assault and harassment by model Keri Claussen Khalighi in a Nov. 19 article in the Los Angeles Times. Simmons then denied the incident in a letter published Nov. 22 by The Hollywood Reporter. The letter prompted Jenny Lumet, an award-winning screenwriter (Rachel Getting Married, The Mummy), the daughter of filmmaker Sidney Lumet, and granddaughter of singer/activist Lena Horne, to pen a response detailing her own experience with Simmons.

On Nov. 22, 2017, Russell Simmons wrote:

“I have never committed any acts of aggression or violence in my life.  I would never knowingly cause fear or harm to anyone.”

Dear Russell:

I met you around 1987, through Rick Rubin, who has always been kind to me.  Rick knew my sister through N.Y.U. and asked me, at the upstairs bar in a nightclub called the Palladium, to be in a movie you were producing that Rick was directing, starring RUN DMC. It was, frankly, a lousy movie and I was terrible in it.

Over the next three or four years, I would see you out and about, at a nightclub called Nell’s, mostly. I don’t recall you and I ever just going out to dinner, or having a one-to-one experience; we were always in groups, and we had many, many mutual friends.  You were charming and funny and charismatic and self-deprecating. Not being in the music business made it possible for me to relax around you.  And you were a fan of my grandmother, respected her, and told me so.  You seemed sincere.

You pursued me, lightly, on and off, over a course of years, saying you had a thing for a “little yellow girl” (me).  I rebuffed.  It wasn’t deep, as far as I knew. It was never a big deal.  You had, I assumed, many women in your orbit.

Once you sent me 250 balloons with the note “Please baby, please baby, baby, baby, baby” after a character in a Spike Lee movie.  It was light, fun, and flattering.  We continued to socialize in the same places.  We continued to have a large group of mutual friends.

One night circa 1991, when I was around 24, I was at a restaurant called Indochine. I had worked there when I was 17, as the coat check girl, and I enjoyed returning. I still knew some of the staff at this point, and felt quite comfortable there.  I remember I was wearing one of the Azzedine Alaia tops that were everywhere that year. And hoop earrings. I think it was cool enough for a jacket.  Because I remember being glad I had a jacket by the end of that night.

You had a car and a driver that evening. Sometime later, you offered me a ride to my home.  I said, sure. During the making of the RUN DMC movie, I had been in vans with you and other crew members.  I don’t recall having accepted a ride home alone with you before that night.

At no time that night did I say: “Russell, I will go home with you”.  Or, “Come home with me.” Or “I will have sex with you.”  Or “I have the desire to have sex with you.”

I believe it was an SUV, because I recall having to step up into the car. I don’t know about makes or models. I think the driver was already in the car.

I got into the car with you. The driver began to drive.  I assumed you knew where I lived, because you had sent me 250 balloons, but I gave the driver my address on 19th Street and 2nd Avenue.  

You said to the driver: “No.”

I didn’t understand, so I said: “Russell?”  

I said, again, to the driver: “19th Street.”

Again you said to the driver:  “No. ”

Then, the car doors locked. It was loud. The noise made me jump.

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