This morning's Daily News
BY BARBARA ROSS and DON SINGLETON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
James Barbour, here with Toni Braxton after her debut in 'Beauty and the Beast,' denies sex rap.
Broadway "Beast" James Barbour roared back yesterday at the young actress who has accused him of sexually abusing her at age 15 - calling the beauty a conniving gold digger.
Barbour, who once played the Beast in "Beauty and the Beast," said through his attorney that the actress only leveled the charges against him after learning he had inherited a large sum of money.
"She left NYU, she's working in a bakery, she's completely out of money," attorney Ronald Fischetti claimed. "The motivation has to be because he's coming into money, and because he's becoming a Broadway star."
The now 20-year-old actress, who could not be reached yesterday, has not filed a civil lawsuit against Barbour seeking damages. But Fischetti said he expects her to sue.
Barbour, 40, had been mentoring the actress for the past five years, trying to help her break into the theater business, Fischetti said.
But last spring she accused Barbour of inappropriately seducing her in 2001. She contacted authorities just within the five-year statute of limitations, the lawyer said.
"She hasn't had stage work for some time," Fischetti said.
Despite landing a role in a stage version of "Les Miserables" and bit parts on the "Sopranos," the woman has been forced to work at a bakery in Cherry Hill, N.J., to pay her bills, Fischetti said.
Barbour attended high school in Cherry Hill and when his mom, who worked many years as a nurse, died this year it was covered prominently by a local paper, Fischetti said.
Barbour inherited a sizable amount of cash, though Fischetti would not say exactly how much. The young actress, whose identity is being withheld by Manhattan prosecutors, contacted authorities a short time later, Fischetti said.
Barbour is accused of groping the actress in July 2001 in his dressing room at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre where he was performing in "Jane Eyre."
He is also accused of fondling her under a table at a restaurant that same night and a month later performing oral sex on her at his Manhattan apartment.
During a court hearing last week, Manhattan prosecutor Maxine Rosenthal said Barbour's secretly recorded words bolstered the actress' case.
"He himself refers to it as 'unethical,'" Rosenthal said.
Prosecutors also revealed that another woman has come forward accusing Barbour of sexually assaulting her in California seven years ago when she was just 13. She has volunteered to tell her story at Barbour's sentencing if he is convicted.
But Barbour has insisted he did not have sex with the Cherry Hill actress - even though he says she was willing to.
Fischetti claimed the audiotape the prosecutor referred to last week undercuts the woman's allegations.
On the tape, Fischetti said, she mentions her financial problems and says a psychiatrist told her that some of her problems stem from the fact that her relationship with Barbour ended.
"What relationship?" Barbour asks, according to Fischetti.
When she refers to the night at his apartment, Barbour says, "I know that was wrong."
But Fischetti said, "She's talking about oral sex, and he's talking about kissing.
"She's using the DA's office and the criminal justice system to sue my client for money for something that's never happened."
Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?
