Following reports and allegations of sexual misconduct from studio executive Harvey Weinstein, Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek has come forward with his own experience of assault from powerful men in Hollywood.

Initially, he commented on the Weinstein scandal with the following tweet.

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He then went on to condemn Weinstein, saying that "What Weinstein is being accused of is criminal. What he’s admitted to is unacceptable - in any industry. I applaud everybody speaking out."

While Van Der Beek, now 40, didn't name the people who assaulted/harassed him, he did say the following:

After his tweets gained traction, he clarified that the people he was talking about "99.9% of you don't know. Two were charged (by others) and punished. The other has since died." His comments come in the wake of certain corners of the internet being judgmental about why the women who accuse men of inappropriate behavior don't come forward sooner. They also come in the wake of a Twitter thread from Terry Crews, who accused an unnamed Hollywood male of groping him, proving this isn't an exclusively female problem.

“This whole thing with Harvey Weinstein is giving me PTSD. Why? Because this kind of thing happened to ME,” Crews tweeted on Tuesday. He continued by alleging that he was at an event in 2016 when the executive came up and groped his "privates."

“Jumping back I said What are you doing?! My wife saw everything n we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk,” Crews alleged, adding, “I was going to kick his ass right then — but I thought twice about how the whole thing would appear.”

Many celebrities, including Cara Delevingne, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow have come forward to accuse Weinstein in particular, but this incident has created a social media flurry of celebrities speaking out about other incidents of assault, as well. Van Der Beek may not be the last.

From: Marie Claire US