Producer Brian Grazer, Donald Trump, director Brett Ratner, Melania Trump and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre, October 24, 2011.<\/span>Sharkpixs\/ZUMA<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In 2017, at the heigh<\/span>t<\/span> of the #MeToo movement, six actresses told the Los Angeles Times<\/em> that a prominent Hollywood director<\/a> was sexually violent toward them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Natasha Henstridge said he forced her to give him oral sex. Olivia Munn said that he masturbated in front of her, then lied to others that they\u2019d had sex. Jaime Ray Newman shared that he\u2019d sexually harassed her on a flight. According to Katharine Towne, the director followed her into the bathroom at a party after making unwanted advances. Jorina King detailed hiding from him in the bathroom; seemingly in exchange for a speaking part in a film, she said that he went into her trailer and asked to see her breasts. Eri Sasaki said that, on set, he repeatedly asked her to enter a bathroom with him, and when she declined, he allegedly said: \u201cDon\u2019t you want to be famous?\u201d<\/p>\n They were talking about Brett Ratner, who on Thursday will stand next to Melania Trump to celebrate the premiere of Melania<\/em>, his eponymous documentary about the First Lady.<\/p>\n In a 2018 interview<\/a> about the #MeToo movement, the First Lady told ABC News, \u201cI support the women\u2014they need to be heard. We need to support them. And also men, not just women,\u201d adding that accusers \u201ccannot just say to somebody \u2026 \u2018I was sexually assaulted\u2019 or \u2018You did that to me.\u2019 Because sometimes the media goes too far and the way they portray some stories, it\u2019s not correct. It\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n Ratner, who was ushered out of Hollywood following the allegations, returns to the industry as the film\u2019s director. He denies all sexual violence allegations against him and has not been charged or held liable in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Melania: 20 Days to History<\/em> details the weeks leading up to the 2025 inauguration. Its Thursday premiere at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\u2014to which President Donald Trump recently affixed<\/a> his name\u2014follows a black-tie White House screening for around 70 people\u2014including Mike Tyson, Queen Rania of Jordan, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, Apple CEO Tim Cook, New York Stock Exchange CEO Lynn Martin, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Jassy, according<\/a> to the Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, personally greenlighted Amazon spending $40 million to acquire the doc. The company is reportedly<\/a> spending another $35 million on marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s event is the culmination of a yearlong re-integration into directing for Ratner, who directed the Rush Hour<\/em> franchise and produced Horrible Bosses<\/em>, among many other credits. His return is thanks in large part to President Trump\u2014who, according to reporting<\/a> from Semafor, personally pressured Paramount head and close ally Larry Ellison to revive Rush Hour<\/em> 4<\/em>\u2014and Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is reportedly friendly with the director and brought him as a guest to the United Nations. (Ratner emigrated to Israel in 2023.) With Trump and Netanyahu\u2019s support, Ratner is now set to direct another documentary\u2014this one on the Abraham Accords, a diplomatic agreement from Trump\u2019s first term involving normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab countries.<\/p>\n After the 2017 allegations, Ratner was dropped<\/a> by Warner Bros., which had a $450-million co-financing deal with his production company. Biopics he had in the works on Hugh Hefner and Milli Vanilli were put on hold<\/a> and dropped<\/a>, respectively. The fourth installment of Rush Hour<\/em>, now once again moving ahead, was also halted.\u00a0<\/p>\n His directing and producing career had been snuffed out\u2014until the Trump family stepped in. Less than a month after Trump, who has been held liable<\/a> in court for sexual abuse and has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women<\/a>, returned to office, Ratner was granted the director role on Melania\u2019s documentary.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ratner, like the president, was also captured in a photograph in the portion of the Epstein files that has been released. The undated image shows him hugging a shirtless Jean-Luc Brunel, the French modeling agent and close Epstein associate who died by suicide in a prison in France in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs millions of Americans and thousands of Epstein survivors continue to demand the full release of the Epstein files, Trump and his abuser buddies have instead chosen to release a vanity project wanted by no one,\u201d said Elisa Batista of survivor advocacy group UltraViolet Action in a statement about Melania<\/em>.<\/p>\n In his return to directing, Rolling Stone <\/em>reports<\/a>, Ratner has been difficult to work with, according to some workers involved in producing Melania<\/em>. While no new sexual misconduct allegations have come out, one crew member put it like this: \u201cI feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this\u2026but Brett Ratner was the worst part.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1292020_melania_2000-.jpg\")