Fred Savage Sued Over Alleged On-Set Behavior

But the actor and Fox deny the claims
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2018 4:06 PM CDT
Fred Savage Sued Over Alleged On-Set Behavior
Actor Fred Savage attends the FOX All-Star Party at the Fox Winter TCA on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, Pasadena, Calif.   (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

A female costumer on The Grinder—a Fox sitcom canceled in 2016 after just one season—is suing Fred Savage, who starred in the show alongside Rob Lowe, alleging harassment and even violence. But both Savage and Fox are hitting back strongly against the claims. Youngjoo Hwang says Savage treated her poorly, giving her mean looks and cursing at her, and once told her he hated her and was annoyed that he had to be nice to her. She says she once brushed dandruff off his tuxedo jacket, which was part of her job—and he hit her three times in the arm while telling her not to touch him. She says he was also verbally abusive to other female crew members on the show, yelling at them not to follow him around or look at him, TMZ reports.

Hwang says Fox protected Savage, and that when she reported the alleged violence to an executive producer he said, "I'm not even sure what Fred did constituted harassment and I don't think you should report it to HR." But Fox says it looked into Hwang's claims: "We conducted a thorough investigation into these allegations and found no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Savage. We will vigorously defend against these unfounded claims," the company said in a statement obtained by Deadline. Page Six has a lengthy statement from Savage in which he says, among other things, "These accusations are completely without merit and absolutely untrue. Fox conducted an extensive internal investigation into her claims, a process in which I fully participated. ... None of her claims could be substantiated because they did not happen." (More harassment stories.)

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