Sexual misconduct allegations
Toback has been accused of sexually harassing young women.
An article in a 1989 issue of Spy magazine detailed how Toback would "hang out on the streets of the Upper West Side in New York City, and approach women. According to the story, he would in rapid-fire fashion tell them that he was a Hollywood director and offer to show them his Directors Guild of America card. The pitch invariably ended up with an invite to meet privately—sometimes at an outlandishly late hour—to talk about appearing in one of his films". The article, attributed to a pseudonym byline, was actually written by two women who had their own alleged encounters with Toback.
A 2002 Salon article noted Toback's reputation as a womanizer and pickup artist.
On October 22, 2017, Los Angeles Times columnist Glenn Whipp reported that 38 women have accused Toback of sexual harassment or assault. Toback denied these allegations, saying he had not met the women, or that if he had, it "was for five minutes" about which he had "no recollection". The alleged harassment occurred at meetings framed as interviews or casting auditions in places such as hotel rooms, movie trailers, or a public park where Toback asked questions pertaining to the women's sex lives and rubbed his crotch on them or masturbated. Accusers include actresses Rachel McAdams, Selma Blair, Terri Conn, Caterina Scorsone, Julianne Moore, Becky Wahlstrom, Cheryl Hines, and musician Louise Post. Toback claimed he was taking medication at the time of the alleged assaults that made it "biologically impossible" for the alleged actions to occur. In January 2018, Whipp reported that since the Times published its article in October 2017, a total of 395 women contacted the newspaper and said that Toback had sexually harassed them. The accounts stretch over a 40-year period. Toback has denied all these allegations as well.
In April 2018, Los Angeles County prosecutors declared they would not be pressing any charges against Toback. In one case, the victim did not turn up for an interview, and the rest were beyond the statute of limitations. Two of the declined cases involved misdemeanors, three involved felonies.
In December 2022, a civil lawsuit was filed against Toback through the New York state Supreme Court after the Adult Survivors Act suspended the statutes of limitations for cases involving sex offenses for a one-year period. The lawsuit involves 40 of his accusers. Toback issued a blanket denial, did not attend the trial, and acted as his own attorney. He did not show up for pre-trial hearings, leading to a default judgment against him. On April 9, 2025, a verdict was reached with an order for Toback to pay $1.68 billion to the accusers.
