Shock rocker Marilyn Manson has just received legal shock when a California judge threw out most of the fading musician’s defamation case against Evan Rachel Wood western world Actress allegations of abuse during former couple’s relationship.
“The court grants in part Woods’ special motion to strike,” LA Superior Court Judge Teresa A. Beaudet wrote Tuesday in a multi-pronged preliminary order that has just become final (read it here).
Stressing the Golden State’s anti-SLAPP statute and its protection of individual freedom of expression, Judge Beaudet took much courage from Manson aka Brian Warner in March 2022 are as good as dead, at least for now. Allegations now emerging from the lawsuit include Manson and his attorneys attempting to corrupt Wood by writing a fictitious FBI letter and creating a checklist of sorts for alleged Manson victims to draw from.
“We are very pleased with the court’s ruling, which affirms and protects Evans’ exercise of her basic First Amendment rights,” Michael Kump, Wood’s lead attorney, told Deadline after the order concluded at a hearing today. “As the court rightly found, the plaintiff has failed to show that her claims against her have even minimal merit.”
After suffering a second straight loss in the case, Manson’s team had their own take on the judge’s decision and how it aims to take another swipe.
“The verdict is disappointing but not unexpected. The court telegraphed that finding when it refused to consider former plaintiff Ashley Smithline’s affidavit, which detailed how wives of Evan Rachel Wood and Illma Gore were systematically pressured into making false claims about Brian Warner ‘ Manson attorney Howard King explained this afternoon.
“The failure to admit this critical evidence, along with the court’s decision not to consider Ms. Gore’s iPad, the contents of which showed her and Ms. Wood creating a fake FBI letter, will be the subject of an immediate appeal to the California Court of Appeals,” he added.
Manson’s lawsuit came a year after Wood herself took to social media in 2021 to publicly name her ex-fiancée over a pattern in which she was “terribly” abused and “groomed” during the duo’s 2007-2010 relationship . Wood, now 35, was 16 when she and Manson began dating. In 2017, Wood told a congressional committee that she was raped and repeatedly abused, but didn’t actually name the alleged predator.
The singer was dropped from his record label and shortly thereafter lost TV appearances and CAA representation after Wood called Manson. The singer said the claims were “horrible distortions of reality”. In the following weeks and months numerous more, like game of Thrones Actress Esmé Bianco has filed allegations and complaints about her own physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Manson.
A number of cases and lawsuits against Manson have been settled, dismissed, as has been the case with Smithline’s efforts, or dropped in the past year or so. For example, in February 2022, Bianco dropped her nearly two-year sexual assault and sexual battery case against Manson after the parties reached a confidential settlement.
The gist of Manson’s now mostly neutered lawsuit against Wood is Rising of the Phoenix. The two-part documentary about the singer and his alleged cycles of abuse and violence premiered at the 2022 virtual Sundance Film Festival. A few months later, the Amy Berg movie debuted on HBO — even after Manson tried to legally move heaven and earth to stop it
In February 2021, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau launched an investigation into multiple abuse allegations that arose between 2009 and 2011 when Manson lived in West Hollywood. A portion of that investigation was presented to LA District Attorney George Gascón.
As far as I know, the Attorney General’s Office has not taken any action yet as this is an ongoing investigation.