After being fired, director Bryan Singer accused of raping teen boy

Bryan Singer, who was fired as director of the Queen movie, has – alongside Kevin Spacey – become the second major openly LGBT public figure to be implicated in Hollywood’s growing sexual abuse scandal.

It’s been reported that Singer, who identifies as bisexual, is being sued by Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who claims he was raped at the age of 17 by the filmmaker on a yacht in 2003.

According to court papers, Sanchez-Guzman alleges that Singer, 52, offered to take him on a tour of the yacht during a ‘gay males’ party on board.

“During this tour, Bryan Singer lured Cesar into a room, shut the door and demanded that Cesar perform oral sex. When plaintiff refused, Bryan Singer forced him into acts of oral and anal sex,” claims the suit.

Despite his repeated requests to stop, said Sanchez-Guzman, Singer “forcibly anally penetrated” him.

Sanchez-Guzman is suing for damages, including “emotional distress, mental anguish, physical and mental pain and suffering, a decrease in his ability to enjoy life”, medical expenses and legal costs.

Singer’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, responded in a statement to TMZ. “Bryan categorically denies these allegations and will vehemently defend this lawsuit to the very end,” he said.

Sanchez-Guzman is being represented by the same lawyer who represented Michael Egan, who sued Singer over similar claims in 2014.

At the time, Singer was forced to drop out of the publicity campaign for X-Men: Days of Future Past to deal with the allegations that he’d drugged and raped the then-17-year-old actor in the 1990s. Singer vehemently denied the claims and his accuser ended up dropping the lawsuit against him.

The director, best known for directing some of the hit X-Men movies and the Oscar-winning The Usual Suspects,  has also been previously alleged to have attended Hollywood sex parties that were marked by the presence of under-age boys.

It’s not been a good week for Singer, who was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody, the anticipated movie about iconic rock band Queen and singer Freddie Mercury, because of his “unexpected unavailability”.

There were rumours that the director was often late, behaved badly on set and fought with star Rami Malek, who plays Mercury. Singer has also denied these claims and insists that he was fired because he requested time off to deal with “pressing health matters concerning one of my parents”.

Little known English actor and director Dexter Fletcher (Eddie the Eagle and Wild Bill) has been announced as Singer’s replacement in helming the rest of the Bohemian Rhapsody production.