A prominent Los Angeles radio and television personality says Minnesota Senator Al Franken “kissed and groped” her without her consent during a USO tour to the Middle East in 2006.
Leeann Tweeden, part of the McIntyre in the Morning show on KABC in Los Angeles, shared her story on Thursday morning’s show and on the KABC website HERE.
Tweeden, a Manassas, Virginia native, writes:
On the day of the show Franken and I were alone backstage going over our lines one last time. He said to me, “We need to rehearse the kiss.” I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again. I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL…we don’t need to rehearse the kiss.’
He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable.
He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said ‘OK’ so he would stop badgering me. We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.
As she detailed the events from that USO tour, Tweeden adds that “It wasn’t until I was back in the US and looking through the CD of photos we were given by the photographer that I saw this one,” and she shares a photo of Franken groping her while she slept. Click HERE to see the photo.
“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” Franken said. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”You can read Tweeden’s full account of the story on the KABC website HERE
(Photos: CNN, KABC.com)
