A writer who worked for Richard Dreyfuss on a TV comedy special in the 1980s said he sexually harassed her for years and exposed himself to her in a studio lot trailer.

The accusations come hot on the heels of claims by a former male model that Star Trek veteran George Takei, who played Sulu in the iconic show and subsequent movies, pulled down his pants and groped him in 1981.

Jessica Teich told the New York magazine blog Vulture.com that Dreyfuss made continual, overt and lewd comments and invitations after they met at a theatre where she worked and Dreyfuss was appearing.

Dreyfuss agent Barry McPherson on Saturday denied the actor ever exposed himself to Teich – but he also acknowledged to Vulture other encounters Dreyfuss now realises were inappropriate.

George Takei: allegations erupt just as his Australian tour begins.

The revelations were among fresh developments in the sexual harassment scandal rolling through Hollywood and other industries.

In 1987, when Teich was working for Dreyfuss on development of an ABC show script, she said she was summoned to his trailer on the set of one of his films and he exposed his genitals to her.

Dreyfuss said he thought the two were involved in a playful “consensual seduction ritual”. He told Vulture that he flirted with Teich but is now “horrified and bewildered to discover that it wasn’t consensual”.

Teich said she decided to speak out after Dreyfuss tweeted support for his son, Harry, after the younger Dreyfuss went public with accusations that Kevin Spacey groped his crotch when he was 18.

And on Saturday, Star Trek icon George Takei took to Twitter to deny he ever knew a struggling actor and model who has accused him of sexual assault in 1981.

“The events he describes back in the 1980s simply did not occur, and I do not know why he has claimed them now,” Takei said in a series of tweets.

The allegations against Takei come as the 80-year-old actor and gay-rights activist is about to begin an Australian lecture tour, starting with an appearance at Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday, when he will be interviewed on stage by Benjamin Law.

Two days later he is is scheduled to give a repeat performance in Sydney, once again with Mr Law, whose biography inspired the SBS series The Family Law.

Takei’s accuser, Scott R Brunton, told The Hollywood Reporter he was 23 at the time, living in Hollywood and working as a waiter when he met Takei at a bar. They exchanged numbers, he said, speaking by telephone from time to time, when Takei invited Brunton to dinner, the theatre and back to his condo for drinks soon after Brunton had broken up with a boyfriend.

He said he grew dizzy and “must have passed out,” awaking to find his pants around his ankles and Takei groping him. He said he extricated himself and left.

In another development in the barrage of sexual assault, harassment and rape allegations to rock the entertainment and other industries, Massachusetts prosecutors will meet with the son of a former Boston TV news anchor who said Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted the teenage boy at a Nantucket restaurant.

-AAP