Metro

Burlesque producer: Ex-performer falsely accused me of rape

A top burlesque producer claims one of his ex-performers, stage named “Bunny Buxom,” and her pals have coopted the #MeToo movement to falsely accuse him of rape.

The producer, Joseph “Joe the Shark” Naftali, has even taken a polygraph test to prove his innocence. The results are included in his new Manhattan Supreme Court defamation case against Buxom, born Juliet Rose Levine, her magician friend Nelson “The Charming Trickster” Lugo, and another pal from the burlesque circuit, Daniele Geist aka “Anja Keister.”

The producer says Lugo “took to Facebook and, posturing as a noble champion of the women’s ‘Me Too’ movement, went on a two-day tantrum in which he called Naftali ‘Joe the Rapist'” in October.

Naftali says he supports the social media campaign where women share stories of being sexually harassed or assaulted with the hashtag “#MeToo.”





“Yet those who bring false accusations — like defendants here — only cheapen and demean the high ideals of exposing and punishing actual abuse,” Naftali says in court papers.

When contacted by The Post, Lugo stood by his comments.

“Mr. Naftali’s been whispered about for many, many years,” Lugo said. “I know at least three women who have similar stories about him forcing himself on them,” he claimed.

Naftali’s lawyers called Lugo’s depiction of their client as a sexual predator “utterly false.”

In court papers Naftali insists his nickname “Joe the Shark” stems from his “well-known affinity for sharks.”

As for his relationship with his accuser, the 47-year-old Greenwich Village resident admits to fooling around with Levine, 27, once in 2012.





“The intimacy did not progress far, and was entirely consensual,” he says in the suit.

“They ‘made out’ a bit, fell asleep for a few hours, and then she went home,” according to the filing.

“In the months and years after” the two “had a perfectly professional and friendly relationship,” Naftali says, adding that “Ms. Buxom gave him a homemade birthday card featuring a hand-drawn image of a shark, affixed with her lipstick-stained kiss” for his 42nd birthday.

In 2014 they collaborated on a Mad Men-themed production of Naftali’s well regarded “Hotsy Totsy Burlesque” production, which The New York Times described as a “high-camp soap opera with comic-book and sci-fi twists that features a rotating cast and a different story every show.”

In late 2012, Levine “publicly accused Naftali of ‘harassment’ in a Facebook post made within a group page called ‘Men Who Have Harassed Women in the Burlesque Scene,” the producer says in the suit.





When the “false accusation did not resonate in the burlesque community” Levine allegedly changed her story. She claimed Naftali had “sexually assaulted her” that one night in 2012, according to court papers.

“Later in 2015, Mr. Naftali began hearing rumors that Ms. Buxom had been telling people that, on that night over three years back, he ‘raped’ her,” the suit says.

Danielle Geist, who performs burlesque as “Anja Keister” and is a friend of Levine, jumped into the fray spreading false sexual assault allegations on social media, the suit says.

Naftali is suing for defamation for unspecified damages. His suit includes the results of an Oct. 18 lie detector test, which show that he answered truthfully to the question: “Did you have any sexual contact with Bunny against her will?”





Naftali says he “voluntarily submitted” to the test to clear his name.

Levine and Geist did not immediately return messages seeking comment.





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