Molly Shannon was sexually harassed by actor Gary Coleman when she was first starting out in Hollywood, the “Saturday Night Live” alum revealed on “The Howard Stern Show” on Tuesday.
The actress spoke about the incident while on Stern’s show, but also details the encounter in her new memoir “Hello, Molly!” Shannon says she was just starting out and had signed with Gary Coleman’s agent, Mark Randall, who asked if she wanted to meet the “Diff’rent Strokes” star. Shannon says she was elated, but once she arrived in Coleman’s hotel room, Randall left.
“Mark came up with us too and they had the presidential suite, and then we went into the room and Mark disappeared,” Shannon said. “I was a virgin, so I wasn’t even thinking about [sex].”
Then Coleman invited Shannon to sit on the bed with him. “I think he was like, ‘Sit down [on the bed].’ It was very sweet. And then he’s, like, tickling me a little. This and that. And I was like, ‘Oh, stop,’ I was trying to be polite and stuff. I’m a polite Catholic girl and a virgin, so I’m naïve about anything about that.”
“He was relentless,” Shannon continued. “Then, he was like trying to kiss me and get on top and I was like, ‘No, Gary. Stop.’ So, I push him off. Then, I would get off the bed. Then, he would bounce on the bed. Jump, jump, jump. And wrap himself around me. Then, I would fling him off. And then he got on top of me. I guess because of his size I didn’t feel physically threatened. But it was going on and on. Repeating. I would throw him off, he would get back on. And then finally, I throw him off… And then I’m really getting out of breath because it was athletic and aerobic.”
Shannon then said she escaped to the bathroom. “So then I finally get him off and then I go to the bathroom, and he grabs onto my leg and I had to kick him off. And then I lock myself in the bathroom and then he sticks his hands under the door and he’s like, ‘I can see you!’”
Eventually, Shannon got out of the room. “I just kind of sprinted out. I think I was probably very polite and then I saw Mark Randall and I was like, ‘You’ve gotta watch that client of yours,’ so I wish I could have stood up for myself more.”
Watch Shannon recount the incident on “The Howard Stern Show” in the video above.