Jared Leto: Ten Women, One Reckoning

Becca Hartwell: Ten women, Fourteen years, 2002 to 2016. Four of them describing criminal sexual conduct. Miles: That's the new BBC documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret, out in late July. Becca Hartwell: And Leto's response to ABC News? Miles: A flat, complete denial. Nothing carved out. Becca Hartwell: No hedge. No, "I don't recall this specific claim." Just no. Miles: Yeah. We noticed that too. Becca Hartwell: Okay. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Star Witness. I'm Becca. Miles: And I'm Miles. Becca Hartwell: We're going all in on this one today. Miles: We'll trace how this actually started. There's a 2005 tablet item almost nobody remembers. Becca Hartwell: Wait for it, because that's not even the wildest part of the timeline. Miles: There's a 2018 resurfacing, then an Instagram post last year- Becca Hartwell: Mm-hmm Miles: ... that cracked the whole thing open. Becca Hartwell: Of course there is. Miles: Right? Becca Hartwell: We're also getting into who kept booking him after- Miles: Wow Becca Hartwell: ... the allegations surfaced, and why the industry stayed so quiet. Miles: And by the end, I land in pretty different places than Becca on who's actually accountable here. Becca Hartwell: We do. Let's start where the documentary starts. Miles: With the women who came forward first. Becca Hartwell: Ten women, four of them alleging criminal sexual conduct. Accounts the BBC says span 2002 to 2016. Miles: And nine of the 10 had never told the story in public before this week. Becca Hartwell: Deadline's reporting the documentary's called Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret, and it just aired with- Miles: Wow Becca Hartwell: ... zero pre-publicity. Miles: None at all? Becca Hartwell: None. Producer Mike Radford dropped it cold on a Wednesday. Miles: Okay, so legally, what's actually alleged versus what's just described? Criminal sexual conduct is a specific label. Becca Hartwell: Right. That's four of the ten. The other six describe a pattern, pursuing very young women, not a criminal claim. Miles: That distinction matters. It's the difference between what a network's lawyers worry about and what everyone else is talking about. Becca Hartwell: And Leto's response was immediate. He told ABC News he's never assaulted anyone, called the claims absolutely and Categorically false. Miles: Categorically false. Word for word? Becca Hartwell: Word for word, per ABC. Miles: So a flat denial sitting right next to four specific criminal allegations. That's day one. Becca Hartwell: And what's bugging me, he was still doing full studio press as recently as October, the Tron: Ares premiere right in Hollywood. Miles: Less than a year ago. Becca Hartwell: Less than a year. Miles: Nobody pulled him off that carpet? Which means the industry either didn't know or knew and didn't care. Becca Hartwell: Or knew and filed it under everybody's heard something. Miles: That's generous. Becca Hartwell: I'm not saying it's fair. I'm saying that's the pattern. Miles: So what actually changed? None of this is new information to some of these women. Becca Hartwell: That's the question I can't put down. There was wave one years back, quiet, easy to look past. This is wave two, and it landed like a truck. Miles: So what was different this time? Becca Hartwell: That's it exactly. What changed between wave one and wave two? Because the whispers didn't start in 2026. Building on that, the paper trail's older than people think. 2005, the New York Post ran an item about Leto pursuing teen models at the Maritime Hotel. Miles: 20 years ago, and nobody followed up? Becca Hartwell: Nope. Then in 2018, Dylan Sprouse posts something- Miles: Mm-hmm Becca Hartwell: ... that basically recirculates the same whispers. Still nothing. Miles: That's the thing about an open secret. It trades like inside information. Everybody's got it. Nobody puts it on paper. Becca Hartwell: Which is exactly what breaks in April 2025. LA DJ Allie Teilz reposts her own 2012 Facebook status on Instagram. She says she was 17. Miles: Wait, she just digs up an old post and drops it? Becca Hartwell: And then she starts getting messages, dozens of them from other women saying, "Me too. Same guy." Miles: So one repost cracks the whole thing open. Becca Hartwell: Basically. Two months later, June 7th, Air Mail runs Elena Clavarino's investigation. Nine women on the record. Miles: Nine. That's not a whisper network anymore. That's a pattern. Becca Hartwell: One of the sources tells Air Mail it had been an- Miles: Wow Becca Hartwell: ... open secret for a long time. Miles: An open secret for a long time. That phrase is doing a lot of work. Becca Hartwell: It survives because nobody writes it down. That's the whole function of it. Miles: Right. And look, I've seen this play out in other industries. Whisper networks don't cost anybody a deal. Paper does. Becca Hartwell: Which is exactly why the BBC's approach in this doc matters so much. Miles: Because they're trying to turn whisper into record. Becca Hartwell: Exactly. Corroboration, family members, friends who were told at the time, the stuff Airmail didn't have room for. Miles: So the question isn't whether people knew. Becca Hartwell: It's whether anyone was ever going to make them answer for it. The BBC crew actually clocked the same thing. Miles: How so? Becca Hartwell: Variety talked to the director, Alice McShane. She told them the team started digging back in April 2025. Miles: Right after the Instagram post cracked things open. Becca Hartwell: Exactly. And McShane said what really pushed them harder was watching how little happened to Leto's career after the Airmail piece landed. Miles: Nothing changed, so they went bigger. Becca Hartwell: That's the read, yeah. Miles: Okay, but a documentary isn't a court filing. What's actually standing behind these accounts? Becca Hartwell: This is where the lawyers come in. CBC News reported the BBC required corroboration, friends or family who were told at the time, not years later. Miles: So contemporaneous witnesses. That's a real bar. Becca Hartwell: It's the bar defamation lawyers set before broadcast. Miles: And the specifics, because criminal sexual conduct is a broad phrase. Becca Hartwell: CBC laid it out. One allegation is an assault in a motel bathroom. The woman was 17. Miles: Jesus. Becca Hartwell: Another describes explicit phone calls to a 16-year-old. Five women overall describe sexual calls, four of them when they were teenagers. Miles: That's-- Those aren't vague memories. Those are specific scenes. Becca Hartwell: Which is the whole point of the Corroboration rule. Miles: Still, memory over 20 years. Defense attorneys live on that cop. Becca Hartwell: They do. And Leto's team has used it before. Airmail reported his camp said one accuser, Laura La Rue, actually applied to be his assistant afterwards. Miles: Which she denied. Becca Hartwell: Flatly. Miles: So even the rebuttals come with their own denial attached. Becca Hartwell: Every layer of this story has a denial stapled to it. Miles: Okay, but here's what's nagging me. If McShane's crew was stunned nothing happened to his career after Airmail- Becca Hartwell: Then somebody kept signing the checks. Miles: Right. Somebody kept booking him. Becca Hartwell: Which is exactly the room we need to walk into next. Miles: The bookings didn't stop, Becca. The Tron heiress press tour just kept rolling months after this story broke. Becca Hartwell: And Masters of the Universe is still sitting on the studio's release slate- Miles: Mm. Becca Hartwell: Untouched. Miles: Thirty Seconds to Mars just locked a European run, too, dates stretching into April 2027. Becca Hartwell: So the band's booking stadiums two years out like none of this landed. Miles: I've watched this machinery for 15 years, just on a smaller scale. Crisis PR retainers kick in within hours of a story like this. Becca Hartwell: Meaning lawyers write the denial before reporters even finish their calls? Miles: Pretty much. Publicists don't improvise those statements. Legal signs off first every time. Becca Hartwell: And the NDAs? Miles: Price the silence right into the budget. On a production this size, that's just a line item. Becca Hartwell: No studio, no agency, not one word on record. Why the silence? Miles: Mike Radford, the producer behind this documentary, told Deadline the industry's response shows where MeToo actually stands in Hollywood. Becca Hartwell: Meaning the test isn't Leto anymore. Miles: It's the agent still renewing him, the publicist still drafting for him- Becca Hartwell: Wow Miles: ... the studio lawyers still clearing him. Becca Hartwell: And so far, everyone's grading themselves pretty well on that test. Miles: Every rep, every studio, total silence. Becca Hartwell: Which leaves the jurisdiction question, a UK broadcast up against an American star. Short pause. Miles: Building on that silence, there's a distribution wrinkle worth naming here. Becca Hartwell: Ooh, go on. Miles: The director, Andrew Russell Brand, made Russell Brand: In Plain Sight last year. Same broadcaster, same approach. Becca Hartwell: Wait, same guy? Miles: Same guy. And BBC Studios is now selling this Leto film internationally, so American audiences don't get it dropped on them. They get it licensed and scheduled. Becca Hartwell: So it's not just landing here tomorrow. Miles: Right. A UK broadcast plus a US Star Witness slower than a Variety exclusive would. Becca Hartwell: Mm-hmm. Miles: Domestic outlets can force a same-day studio statement. This has to travel first. Becca Hartwell: Meanwhile, the fans are already fighting online. Miles: What are you seeing? Becca Hartwell: Among Thirty Seconds to Mars fans split into camps, the innocent until proven crowd and the ones combing old tour photos for red flags. Miles: Wow. Becca Hartwell: It's ugly out there. Miles: And the film people? Becca Hartwell: Completely different tone. Industry accounts aren't debating guilt at all. They're asking why nobody in his circle has said anything on record. Miles: So the fans are litigating the evidence. Becca Hartwell: And the industry's litigating the silence. Miles: Neither one has cost him a booking yet. Becca Hartwell: Yet. But once we get into who should actually answer for this- Miles: That list gets short fast. Becca Hartwell: Zeroing in on consequences, my verdict's simple. Real accountability looks like someone pulling a deal. A statement doesn't count. Miles: Nobodys pulled anything yet, though. Becca Hartwell: Right. WME, his label, Thirty Seconds to Mars' own management, total silence. Miles: BGHOST1mhm. Becca Hartwell: That silence is the tell for me. Miles: Id frame it differently. His publicists denial is unqualified, flat, no hedge, no decline to comment. Thats a deliberate legal posture. Becca Hartwell: I mean, a clean denial isnt proof of anything, though. Miles: Neither are allegations without charges. No prosecutors filed a thing. In the industry math, bookings, insurance, casting- Becca Hartwell: BGHOST1hmm. Miles: ... hasn't actually shifted. That's what I'm tracking. Becca Hartwell: The math not shifting is exactly my problem, Miles. Miles: Well, fair. We're weighing it differently. You're putting it on the agents. I'm putting it on process. Becca Hartwell: I think the agents are choosing silence because it protects the client cheaper than losing him would cost them. Miles: Or lawyers are telling everyone to say nothing until an actual filing exists. Becca Hartwell: Either way, somebody's protecting revenue over the women in that documentary. Miles: So what's the actual thing to watch? Becca Hartwell: Whether Thirty Seconds to Mars' April 2027 dates hold. Promoters quietly stepping back would be the first real crack. Miles: And I want one American outlet, one studio, one brand willing to go on record before this cycle buries it. Becca Hartwell: Because right now, the loudest voice in this story is still his own publicist. Miles: And the quietest are the people who actually employ him. Becca Hartwell: Okay, before we let you go, the line that's still sitting with me, your open secret trades like insider information. Miles: Yeah, that one's sticking with me too. Becca Hartwell: Ten women, four alleging criminal sexual conduct, and Leto still calling it absolutely and categorically false. Miles: Right. And nobody in Hollywood said any word on record. Becca Hartwell: Which my verdict stands, silence is its own kind of guilty. Miles: And mine, no filing, no named accuser yet. The process hasn't caught up. Becca Hartwell: We're watching that April tour and whoever breaks first. Miles: Could be a studio, could be a fan account. Becca Hartwell: Got a case for us? Drop it in the reviews. Tag us at Star Witness Pod. Miles: New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe so you don't miss the verdict. Becca Hartwell: Thanks for hanging out with us on this one. Miles: Yeah. See you next week. Becca Hartwell: Bye, everyone.