Hayden Panettiere memoir details disturbing encounter with Oscar-winning actor in Hollywood

EntertainmentMovie
19 May 2026 • 7:31 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Hayden Panettiere memoir details disturbing encounter with Oscar-winning actor in Hollywood

  • Hayden Panettiere's new memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, details uncomfortable and disturbing experiences from her early career in Hollywood.
  • She recounts an incident at a Los Angeles party when she was 19, where an unnamed Oscar-winning actor exposed himself by claiming to have gum on his trousers, revealing his testicles from an unzipped fly.
  • Panettiere felt deeply uneasy at the party, which was predominantly attended by older men, and quickly left after the actor's shocking behaviour, never speaking about it until now.
  • She notes that up to that point, she had generally found men in Hollywood to be kind and respectful, making the actor's actions particularly shocking to her.
  • The book also describes another distressing event where a friend allegedly forced her into bed with a naked famous man during a yacht trip in France.

IN FULL