Cuba Gooding Jr. Pulls Up Sarah Paulson’s Skirt at PaleyFest — and His Bad-Boy Behavior Continues

Cuba Gooding Jr. crept up behind Sarah Paulson as she greeted Kathy Bates onstage at PaleyFest. (Photo: Getty Images)
Cuba Gooding Jr. crept up behind Sarah Paulson as she greeted Kathy Bates onstage at PaleyFest. (Photo: Getty Images)

Show me the … bad judgment! Cuba Gooding is raising eyebrows — again! — by pulling up Sarah Paulson’s skirt when they were onstage at PaleyFest over the weekend.

Promoting American Horror Story: Roanoke on Sunday, the high-energy actor, 49, best known for screaming, “Show me the money!” at Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire (and getting an Oscar for it) channeled his inner 7-year-old naughty schoolboy by coming up behind his mega-talented co-star —who plays his wife in the FX series — and pulling up the back of her Prada dress while she posed for photos with Kathy Bates in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. Paulson, to her credit, didn’t turn around and smack him. She let out a shriek and a laugh — and, ever the professional, it was on with the show. However, the Internet was all kinds of angry for her.

When Cuba Gooding Jr. pulled up her skirt, Sarah Paulson let out a shriek. (Photo: Getty Images)
When Cuba Gooding Jr. pulled up her skirt, Sarah Paulson let out a shriek. (Photo: Getty Images)

For example:

And:

This too:

Gooding has always been unpredictable (remember his Oscar speech?), but his behavior has definitely shifted over to questionable in recent years. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that three years ago he separated from his high school sweetheart wife, Sara Kapfer, after 20 years of marriage. In January, he filed for divorce.

Later, Paulson seemed to have had enough. (Photo: Getty Images)
Later, Paulson seemed to have had enough. (Photo: Getty Images)

The month before his divorce filing, Gooding — high off his success playing O.J. Simpson in The People v. O.J. Simpson — delivered a curse-filled speech while honoring designer John Varvatos at the Footwear News Achievement Awards. (At one point he told the crowd, “I’m drunk now, motherf*****s, so deal with it.”) But even before that, he made headlines for inappropriate interactions with women.

Last March, Page Six detailed his antics during a night out at a Santa Monica, Calif., bar, in which his vile pickup line on a patron had the woman and her friends hightailing it out of there in “disgust.”

Earlier that month, he was also called out for his “pervy party behavior” during a boys’ trip to Miami.” He spent his days camped out at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel pool, and the Jekyll and Hyde star would quickly go from “super-friendly to super-aggressive,” according to an onlooker. “He kept grabbing beers and kissing my sunburn,” said one woman. “It was really uncomfortable.”

During that trip, he was danced shirtless at various clubs — and at one, he pulled down his pants.

A few years back, Gooding allegedly got physical with a female bartender in New Orleans. She asked him to leave after he cursed out a patron, and she claimed he pushed her. Police were called. A few months before that, he was accused of groping and sexually harassing women at a bar in Mexico. He claimed he did nothing wrong.

Neither Paulson nor Gooding have commented about his peculiar behavior at PaleyFest, but maybe this public dressing down will get him to rethink his behavior. He’s going to be 50 in January — maybe it’s time to grow up?


Read more from Yahoo Celebrity: