In an explosive Twitter dustup, the veteran actor James Woods has been accused by actress Amber Tamblyn of trying to pick her up when she was 16.
Tamblyn—now 34 and best known for her roles in Two and a Half Men and The Ring—made the allegation, which the Once Upon a Time in America actor called “lies,” after Woods attacked the Luca Guadagnino-helmed festival hit film, Call Me by Your Name—a gay romantic drama starring Armie Hammer as a graduate student who falls in love with his professor’s underage son, played by Timothée Chalamet.
The unseemly melee developed after website Towleroad tweeted a link of Hammer reading five minutes of the Andre Aciman novel on which the film is based for a new audio book.
ADVERTISEMENT
The movie has received rave reviews (currently 98 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and Oscar buzz ahead of its Nov. 24 release.
Gay author Chad Felix Greene replied to the tweet with a criticism of the film’s subject matter.
Woods, who has in recent years developed a reputation as a Twitter troll, then commented on Green’s tweet, posting, “As they quietly chip away the last barriers of decency. #NAMBLA”
The incendiary hashtag, according to a summary of the digital feud in The Hollywood Reporter this morning, “refers to the North American Man/Boy Love Association, which is a pedophilia advocacy organization.”
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the age of consent in California is 18, but that in Italy, where the film is set, it is 14.
Hammer, 31, understandably bridled at the implications of Woods’ tweet and clapped back with, “Didn’t you date a 19-year-old when you were 60.......?”
The Hollywood Reporter, citing “multiple reports,” says that Woods, 70, started dating his current girlfriend, Kristen Bauguess, in 2013, when she was 20-years-old and he was 66.
Before Bauguess, he was in a relationship with a woman named Ashley Madison, whom he reportedly started dating when he was 60 and she was 19.
Enter Amber Tamblyn.
When one fan said he had “made her day” after he asked her for directions, Woods responded with, “I’m so glad. Did I offer to take you to Vegas?”
He later accused Tamblyn of lying when he was asked, “What makes a 24yo/17yo gay relationship inherently indecent but skeevy old guys trying to pick up a pair of 16 year old girls is okay?”
Woods replied:
Tamblyn has made no further comment.
In 2000, Woods reportedly said of a 19-year-old actress he was managing: “If you ever bought a dog, what did you buy? You bought a fucking puppy... You don’t buy a 13-year-old German shepherd. You buy a nice young puppy—what are you crazy?"
