The late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.), a colossal creep even by the lax standards of his generation, reportedly "tried to f—k" Jeramie Rain in the 1980s, then-wife of Hollywood actor Richard Dreyfuss, who has "never forgiven Teddy" for the transgression.
Dreyfuss' son, Mother Jones editorial director Ben Dreyfuss, recounted the incident on Twitter in response to a prompt about "the most surreal encounter you've had with someone famous."
https://twitter.com/bendreyfuss/status/1115981848356839426
Kennedy was renowned for his lascivious exploits and pervasive alcoholism, which rendered him somewhat problematic even by the standards of the late 1960s. He might have been elected president in 1972 if not for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, who drowned after Kennedy offered to give her a ride home, drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, and subsequently fled the scene and neglected to report the accident to authorities.
Nevertheless, he persisted.
Kennedy's legendary lechery was documented in a 1990 profile in GQ magazine:
Kennedy regularly finds himself in unseemly scenes. One East Coast playboy recalls an incident a few years ago in a popular Palm Beach bar when "a definitely drunk" Kennedy shoved him against the bar and spilled his beer as the senator rushed out the door with a blonde so young, the man at first mistook Kennedy for an angry father come to take home an underage daughter ...
In December 1985, just before he announced he would run for president in 1988, Kennedy allegedly manhandled a pretty young woman employed as a Brasserie waitress ...
As [Carla] Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd's lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. ..
On September 25, 1987, Kennedy and a young blonde woman—identified by several sources as a congressional lobbyist—allegedly got carried away at a wine-fueled lunch in a private room upstairs and succumbed to the temptations of the carpet, where they were surprised in a state of semi-undress and wholehearted passion by waitress Frauke Morgan ...
Presumably, if he were alive today, Kennedy would not be considered a frontrunner to win the Democratic nomination in 2020. But you never know.
Richard Dreyfuss is best known for his role as Dr. Leo Marvin in the 1991 classic, What About Bob? starring Bill Murray.