Danny Elfman has been sued by a second woman for sexual misconduct. Per The Hollywood Reporter, an anonymous accuser filed a lawsuit against the composer on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Elfman and his company, Musica de la Muerta, are facing allegations of sexual assault, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment, and negligence. The complaint claims that the Jane Doe plaintiff met Elfman in 1997 when she was a 21-year-old student and he was 47. According to the lawsuit, he invited her to industry events and treated her as his protegé. Over the next five years, he allegedly removed his clothes and exposed his genitals to the plaintiff, claiming that it was the only way he could “work, be creative, and successful.†The lawsuit further alleges that she sometimes slept, fully clothed, on the same bed as a nude Elfman. Doe claims that she cut contact with Elfman around 2002, when he allegedly told her that he had masturbated every time she slept next to him. A spokesperson for Elfman denied these allegations as “baseless and absurd,†telling THR in a statement that “his legal team is assessing all options and he will vigorously defend these claims in court.â€
The new claims are strikingly similar to allegations leveled by composer Nomi Abadi in a previous lawsuit against Elfman, which he also denied. Abadi claimed that the man she looked to as a mentor figure indecently exposed himself and masturbated in front of her without consent. Her case was settled with a nondisclosure agreement in 2018, but it came to light this July when she accused Elfman of failing to pay $85,000 of the $830,000 settlement. Abadi’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, said Elfman’s latest accuser contacted him after reading about and relating to Abadi’s story.