Is Jane Campion Sure She Wasn't Sexually Harassed at a Recent Film Festival?

It's been a tough year of festivalgoing for writer-director Jane Campion. As if it weren't bad enough that her Bright Star experienced a catastrophic projection error last fall in Toronto, she has been cited among the women filmmakers claiming they were sexually harassed recently by the husband of a festival director in India. Campion issued a statement saying that while the India International Women's Film Festival is the most "fraudulently presented" fest she'd ever attended, she was not among the targets of Bhaskar Deb's alleged "lewd advances." But as seen above, Movieline has uncovered evidence suggesting that Campion might have overlooked this kind of thing before.

A photograph accompanying a related story at indieWIRE features Campion confronted with an unidentified fleshy appendage that looks pretty lewd to me. This image from last year's also-disappointing Cannes Film Festival (there, The White Ribbon narrowly edged out Bright Star for the Palme d'Or) may not provide the smoking gun in the case against Bhaskar Deb, but it indicates how treachery often hides in plain sight when -- and where -- we least expect it.

As for Deb, he categorically denies the harassment allegations, dismissing Campion as "a racist from Australia." The nerve of some people! She's from New Zealand.

· Campion Denies Sexual Harassment Claims Against Indian Film Festival [indieWIRE]