Dustin Hoffman and John Oliver. Image by Getty/Forward Montage

By Ari Feldman December 5, 2017

The TV host John Oliver grilled Dustin Hoffman over the allegation of groping brought against the actor at what many expected to be a straight-forward movie screening Q&A, the Washington Post reported.

Oliver brought up the allegation at a panel discussion during an anniversary screening of the film “Wag the Dog” at the 92nd Street Y in New York Monday evening. In the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays a spin doctor tasked with distracting voters from a politician’s sexual impropriety before an election.

“This is something we’re going to have to talk about because … it’s hanging in the air,” Oliver said to Hoffman, who was sitting on a panel with Robert De Niro, director Barry Levinson and producer Jane Rosenthal.

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For the next half-hour, John Oliver pushed Hoffman to offer a better apology for groping an intern on a movie set in 1985.

“Do you believe this stuff you read?” Hoffman asked Oliver at one point.

“Yes,” Oliver replied. “Because there’s no point in [an accuser] lying.”

“Well, there’s a point in her not bringing it up for 40 years,” Hoffman said.

“Oh Dustin,” Oliver said, holding his head in his hands.

Hoffman later cited his role in the movie “Tootsie,” in which he dressed as a woman, in defending himself as feminist.

“I would not have made that movie if I didn’t have an incredible respect for women,” Hoffman said.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

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