Tyler Perry has been hit with a $77 million lawsuit as he faces sexual assault allegations from yet another actor.
Mario Rodriguez, who starred in Perry’s “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” filed a lawsuit against the billionaire and Lionsgate films in California on Thursday, accusing Perry of sexually assaulting him over a period of years.
According to court documents obtained by Page Six, Rodriguez claims Perry, 56, made a sexual advance on him in 2018 when he “tightly hugged” him and touched his genitals.
The actor, who says he first met Perry at an Equinox gym in 2015, alleged the incident took place after Perry invited him to dinner at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Beverly Hills, Calif. to discuss a potential role in his series, “The Oval.”
After the dinner, the two went to Perry’s home where he claims the writer told him to “hold on” as he attempted to unbuckle his pants.
The court documents claim Mr. Perry “reached into Mr. Rodriguez’s underwear” and allegedly touched his genitals.
“Mr. Perry was making sexual moaning noises and saying, ‘Stay here, stay here,’ while he pressed his body against Mr. Rodriguez and continued to grab his penis,” the court papers continued to claim.
After he managed to free himself, he claimed Perry apologized and paid him $5,000.
Rodriguez claims in the lawsuit another incident with Perry took place in 2019 when he allegedly grabbed Rodriguez’s hand and placed it on his private area.
“If you were to just be with me, I would take care of you, and you wouldn’t have to ever worry about anything,” Perry allegedly told Rodriguez at the time, per the docs.
When Rodriguez once again declined Perry’s advances, he says the “Madea Goes to Jail” filmmaker gave him another $5,000.
Rodriguez also claims in the docs that the film distributor is “aware” of Perry’s alleged inappropriate behavior and “continues to provide Perry with funding to create films in reckless disregard for its duty to intervene and make sure that actors working with Perry are not assaulted.”
In response to the lawsuit, Perry’s attorney Alex Spiro told Page Six, “Having recently failed in another matter against Mr. Perry, the very same lawyer [Jonathan Delshad] has now made yet another demand from more than a decade ago which will also be a failed money grab.”
Reps for Lionsgate did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
The new allegations come months after another man, Derek Dixon, filed a $260 million lawsuit against the filmmaker accusing him of sexual assault.
Dixon, who previously worked for Perry as an actor on his series “The Oval,” claimed in court docs that the movie producer first made sexual advances toward him after inviting him to his home in Atlanta in January 2020.
According to court documents, Dixon described an incident where he slept in one of Perry’s guest rooms due to being inebriated. He then claimed that Perry got into bed with him and touched his thighs, but he rejected Perry’s advances.
The actor shared that he was introduced to Perry after he picked him out of a crowd at a 2019 event and asked for his phone number for a possible role.
However, after he landed his role in “The Oval,” Dixon claimed Perry started to send him sexual messages, according to court docs. The messages in the complaint allegedly include Perry asking him his sexual preferences and noting that he has sex with men.
According to the complaint, Dixon said he feared he would lose his gig on the BET plus drama if he complained about the alleged sexual harassment or bluntly rejected Perry’s advances.
He is seeking $260 million in damages for quid pro quo, workplace sexual harassment, sexual assault and battery.
At the time, Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, responded to the lawsuit slamming it as a “scam.”
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Boyd’s statement reads. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
In September, Dixon doubled down on his sexual assault accusations against Perry in an ABC News interview where he insisted that he made it “pretty clear [he] was not interested in that type of relationship” with Perry.
“I think it’s OK that people try to make a move or shoot their shot but if they get rejected, I think that they should stop. I thought it would stop after that, but it didn’t.”
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