The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it is reviewing the status of Paul Haggis’s membership after a civil lawsuit that resulted in the director being ordered to pay $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 million in punitive damages.
“The Academy will address this matter in accordance with our Standards of Conduct and due process requirements under California nonprofit corporation law,” the organization said in a statement to TheWrap.
As previously reported on “The Wrap,” the “Crash” director was found liable to pay damages for forcing Haleigh Breest to have sex in 2013.
The filmmaker had argued that the meeting was consensual, that the former freelance publicist was seeking a payday and that the allegations were somehow a Scientology plot. The New York civil jury rejected all three defenses in the case after 15 days of deliberation.
In the Academy’s 94-year history, it has only expelled five previous members: Carmine Caridi, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski and cinematographer Adam Kimmel.
Ankler’s newsletter was the first to report the news.