“Saturday Night Live” alum Horatio Sanz was previously accused of sexual assault by an unnamed woman regarding an incident that occurred when she was a teenager.
Now the individual — named in court docs as Jane Doe — has blasted his cast for not supporting and sticking up for her during her legal process.
Doe spoke to author Maureen Ryan last year for her brand new book Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood and she slammed the “SNL” cast.
“My control top pantyhose did more to keep me safe than any of those people that I idolized,” the accuser said in an excerpt published in the Hollywood Reporter yesterday.
Doe claimed in an August 2021 lawsuit that Sanz, 54, groped, groomed and sexually abused her at several of the sketch comedy shows’ afterparties in the early 2000s when she was merely a teenager.
She also alleged that cast members such as Tina Fey and Will Ferrell watched as the unfortunate scenes unfolded at the bashes.
At a 2002 event, she stated in the suit how Sanz touched her inappropriately “in full view of party onlookers, continuing the assault even as she implored him to stop” and that “the entire ‘SNL’ cast watched” and “laughed.”
“SNL” cast members Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Steve Martin, Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz and creator Lorne Michaels attend the DGA Honors in September 2004.FilmMagicIn other legal papers Doe filed in August 2022, she noted that “SNL” alums Tracy Morgan, Jimmy Fallon, and show creator Lorne Michaels were “enablers” over the abuse she suffered. The suit was then settled in November 2022.
Doe said that while the cast of “Sex and The City” released a statement saying, “It’s hard for the survivor to come forward and we support the survivor,” following allegations against Chris Noth, the “SNL” cast didn’t have her back in a similar fashion.
“None of the people who were at SNL at the time have had one word to say,” Doe added. “Not one person has said, ‘Oh, I remember that — that was wrong.'”
She explained that the cast never came to her aid or told NBC executives about what went down between her and Sanz.
Jimmy Fallon as Jarret and Horatio Sanz as Gobi during the “Jarret’s Room” skit on the Dec. 14, 2002, episode of “SNL.”NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesDoe graphically went on: “I just know that as an adult now in her thirties, if I saw a colleague fingering or getting a minor drunk, getting a fan drunk, and I saw that clearly unbalanced power dynamic.”
“Sanz was clearly pursuing me, physically pursuing me across years of these parties,” she firmly said. “If I saw my colleague doing that with a teenage fan, I would absolutely intervene or I would go up the chain of command and I would want something to be done. I would want it to be handled. And I don’t think that that happened.”
“And I don’t know if that was because no one said anything at all,” she continued. “And I don’t know if that’s because, maybe, ‘Saturday Night Live’ selects employees who happen to be funny and also happen to be the type of people that aren’t going to say anything when bad things happen to people — they’re just going to keep their mouth closed. I don’t know if Lorne just has such a stronghold on everyone.”
Jane Doe accused Horatio Sanz of grooming and sexual assault in a 2021 lawsuit she filed. FilmMagicShe then revealed that she and Sanz stayed in contact after she was allegedly assaulted, however, over time she came to realize the relationship was “emotionally abusive.”
She asserted that Sanz raped her in a taxi, and made it believe that it was her “fault” that the incident occurred.
She said of the incident that she “forgot about that fifteen-year-old girl that used to have confidence.”
But Doe is proud to share her experiences to help empower other victims and to hold the perpetrators liable for their actions.
The Post has reached out to Sanz and “SNL” for comment.
