Bryan Singer, director of X-Men: Days of Future Past, has been accused of sexually abusing a 17-year old boy in a lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Hawaii on Wednesday.  The suit alleges that Michael Egan, the plaintiff, was sexually assaulted by Singer in Los Angeles and in Hawaii when Egan was 17, in 1999. 

Contact occurred at a mansion in Encino, California through Marc Collins-Rector, chairman of Digital Entertainment Network in which Singer was an investor, and at Paul Mitchell’s estate in Hawaii, the suit alleges.  Egan was given drugs, alcohol, and was threatened and physically forced to have sex with Singer, according to the suit.  Collins-Rector is a convicted sex offender. 

The civil suit charges intentional infliction of emotional distress, battery, assault, and invasion of privacy by unreasonable intrusion, and asks for unspecified damages. 

Singer’s attorney Marty Singer told Variety, "The claims made against Bryan Singer are completely without merit.  We are very confident that Bryan will be vindicated."  He called the suit "absurd and defamatory."

Egan’s attorney is Jeff Herman, a sexual abuse attorney who represented the men who accused Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of abuse when they were minors. Those cases were tossed because of statute of limitations issues.  Herman and Egan will have a press conference in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

The lawsuit contains many lurid details and seems timed to create maximum pain and incentive to settle for Singer, who was about to enter a frenzied period of publicity on behalf of X-Men:  Days of Future Past, which opens May 23rd (see "Final 'X-Men:  DoFP' Trailer").  Singer has been a personal missionary for the film throughout production and since, using his Twitter account to release photos and info.  It’s hard to see how this kind of publicity is anything but bad for the movie, which seemed poised for a big open.