"Remember the Titans" actor Kip Pardue, a 43-year-old Atlanta native and Dunwoody High School graduate, was fined $6,000 by the SAG-AFTRA actors union for sexual harassing an actress on the set of a television show pilot in 2018.
According to an account in the Los Angeles Times, Pardue - who is on the Hulu Marvel series "The Runaways" as a cast member - became aroused when he was in bed with actress Sarah Scott and took her hand and placed it on his groin just before they shot a post-coital scene on "The Mogulettes," which didn't become a series.
After the scene was shot, Pardue brought her into his dressing room and began masturbating in front of her, Scott told the Times.
This was several months after the #MeToo movement had begun yet he told her they were peers so this was not like Harvey Weinstein or Matt Lauer.
Scott said in 14 years in the business, no actor had ever done this to her before.
She didn’t file a police report and isn’t seeking financial compensation. She placed a complaint to the actor’s union, hoping they could punish Pardue professionally and deter him from doing so again, perhaps with a suspension. Instead, they fined him. If he takes a sexual harassment course, the $6,000 fine would be reduced to $3,000.
Before the March disciplinary hearing against Pardue, a second woman came forward with a similar story in which Pardue allegedly masturbated in front of her in a trailer on the set of Showtime's "Ray Donovan."
During the hearing, Pardue acknowledged placing her hand on his penis but denied the masturbation allegations.
"I clearly misread the situation during a sex scene on set and have apologized to Sarah," Pardue said in a statement provided to the Times by his representative David Shane. "I never intended to offend her in any way and deeply regret my actions and have learned from my behavior."
Pardue declined to answer questions to the Times about the hearing itself but Shane said the actor had “never engaged in any nonconsensual behavior.”
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