New York — "Star Trek" actor George Takei has denied he groped a struggling model in 1981.
Takei said Saturday in a series of tweets that events described in an interview with Scott R. Brunton "simply did not occur." He says he didn't know "why he has claimed them now."
Brunton told The Hollywood Reporter he was living in Hollywood when he met Takei at a bar. They exchanged numbers, he said, and then Takei invited him out and back to his condo after Brunton broke up with a boyfriend.
Brunton said he "must have passed out" after a drink, awaking to Takei groping him.
Takei called the accusations a "he said/he said situation" and added that the "very idea that someone would accuse me of this is quite personally painful."