Brendan Fraser Blasts Golden Globes Prez Over Groping

Brendan Fraser has gone public with his tale of showbiz groping at the Golden Globes in 2003 — blasting the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for derailing his career after a sexual assault!

Fraser — currently hoping for a comeback in the new FX series "Trust" — told GQ magazine that he lost his passion for Hollywood after the attack by Philip Berk at a Golden Globes luncheon in Los Angeles. That's after Berk claimed in his own memoir that he only pinched Fraser's butt while discussing a rumor that the star had once done the same to a female HFPA official.

Berk wrote in his book that Fraser’s response was either: “He pinched my ass” or “He touched my bod” — with the actor later sending him a letter that threatened legal action. Commenting for the first time publicly, though, Fraser blasts Berk for blatantly groping him!

“His left hand reaches around,” Fraser told GQ, “grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around...I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry.” He says the traumatic moment was when his interest in acting “withered on the vine.”

The scandal briefly got some attention after a copy of Fraser's legal letter leaked to the press. Berk wrote in his memoir that he later sent Fraser a letter of apology — adding: “Unfortunately, the incident has hounded me ever since.” Fraser, however, says the moment was a typical case of Hollywood sexual harassment.

Berk told GQ that the star's story is “a total fabrication.” Fraser, however, insists that he's now empowered by actresses recently rising up to speak out against Hollywood's sick casting couch culture: “I know Rose [McGowan], I know Ashley [Judd], I know Mira [Sorvino] — I've worked with them...I watched this wonderful movement, these people with the courage to say what I didn't have the courage to say.”