Hayden Panettiere says Oscar winner exposed himself to her at 19 in new memoir

Actress Hayden Panettiere is alleging that a “well-respected” Oscar-winning actor and director exposed himself to her at a private party when she was 19 years old, a claim she details in her new memoir released Tuesday.

Ms. Panettiere, 36, best known for her roles on “Heroes” and “Nashville,” writes in “This Is Me: A Reckoning” that she was mingling with a group of men at an apartment gathering when she began feeling increasingly uncomfortable and decided to leave. As she was putting on her coat, an unnamed man approached her and said there was chewing gum stuck to his pants.

“I looked down and recoiled,” Ms. Panettiere wrote, according to People magazine. “This well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly.”

She did not name the man, describing him only as an “Oscar-winning actor and director.” She wrote that she was certain the act was “a drunken joke” but added that she had “never seen a grown man do something like that.” She opted not to tell her friend, who had attended the party with her, because “the moment had passed,” and chalked the behavior up to “some older men had just grown up with no manners.”

The memoir, released Tuesday, also recounts a separate incident in which Ms. Panettiere, then 18, found herself aboard a yacht in France when a friend introduced her to a “famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter” who was lying in bed. The friend urged her to get into bed with the unnamed man. Ms. Panettiere wrote that she bolted as soon as the friend left the room.