In light of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment revelations that have rocked Hollywood and dominated the headlines over the past few weeks, it seems not even a knee touch during a talk show will go by unnoticed.
On Saturday night, movie star Adam Sandler found himself sitting on the couch of BBC’s The Graham Norton Show along side his The Meyerowitz Stories co-star Emma Thompson to his right and actress Claire Foy of The Crown to his left. Model/actress Cara Delevinge was also there watching the “event” unfold.
In the clip below, Sandler is in the middle of telling a chat-show story when he touches Foy’s knee with his hand and quickly removes it before touching it again:
In context it seems Sandler is saying that he took his parents as his guests when he was nominated for a Golden Globe. He touches the actress’ knee. Foy then awkwardly smiles and tries to pat his hand before he moves it away. Acknowledging her reaction, Sandler places his hand back on her knee, adding, “Just like you,” which seems to reference Foy taking her parent(s) to an award ceremony or event.
Apparently this 10 second exchange was enough to have Twitterers claiming “This is not OK”:
[[{“fid”:”26430″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Twitter”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“2”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Twitter”}},”attributes”:{“title”:”Twitter”,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”2″}}]]
Others claimed they were “very uncomfortable” watching the exchange:
[[{“fid”:”26433″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Twitter”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“4”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Twitter”}},”attributes”:{“title”:”Twitter”,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”4″}}]]
According to The Daily Mail, a representative for Foy said that she was not offended by what had happened.
“We don’t believe anything was intended by Adam’s gesture and it has caused no offense to Claire,” a spokeswoman told the news outlet.
Sandler’s reps told the reporter that his client’s actions were “a friendly gesture” that have been “blown out of proportion.”