The shock rocker Marilyn Manson has dropped his long-running defamation lawsuit against the actor Evan Rachel Wood and has agreed to pay her about $327,000 in attorneys’ fees, Deadline reported.
Wood had previously identified Manson as her abuser in February 2021, accusing her former fiance of sexual assault, psychological abuse, violence, coercion and intimidation.
The Westworld actor accused her former partner on social media in 2021 of “horrific” abuse, along with allegations of grooming her starting from when she was a teenager. Other women came forward with similar allegations following Wood’s public denouncement.
Manson denied the accusations, calling them “horrible distortions of reality”, and responded by filing a lawsuit against Wood in March 2022, citing defamation and emotional distress.
“Marilyn Manson – whose real name is Brian Warner – filed a lawsuit against Ms Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career. But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms Wood failed,” a representative for Wood said in a statement obtained by Rolling Stone.
“As the trial court correctly found, Warner’s claims were meritless. Warner’s decision to finally abandon his lawsuit and pay Ms Wood her full fee award of almost $327,000 only confirms as much.”
A judge ruled against portions of Manson’s lawsuit in 2023 and ordered Manson to pay about $500,000 in attorney fees. Manson filed an appeal against the decision, which now appears unsuccessful following the dropping of his case.
According to Deadline, court documents indicating the end of the lawsuit and the agreement to pay Wood’s legal fees were signed yesterday by Manson.
Source: theguardian.com
