On Wednesday, rocker Marilyn Manson filed a lawsuit against his former girlfriend, “Westworld” star Evan Rachel Wood, alleging that he sexually and physically assaulted her throughout their relationship.
Wood and another woman named as a defendant, Illma Gore, allegedly used false pretenses, including a phony FBI letter, to persuade other women to come forward with sexual abuse allegations and coached them on what to say about Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Wood publicly branded Manson “as a rapist and abuser — a malicious fabrication that has destroyed Warner’s lucrative music, TV, and film career,” according to the complaint, which alleges defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The complaint has yet to get a response from Wood and Gore. Wood’s agents did not respond to an email requesting comment right away.
In 2007, Manson and Wood announced their relationship, and they were briefly engaged in 2010 before parting up.
Wood said she had been raped and mistreated in 2017, when the #MeToo movement was gaining traction, and then spoke to a congressional committee in 2018, both without identifying anybody. Then, in February 2020, Wood identified Manson in an Instagram post, alleging he “horrifically abused me for years.”
Manson’s record label dropped him. Several more women have come out with claims that are similar to hers. At least three of them have filed lawsuits against each other. Manson was also the subject of a police probe.
On March 15, HBO will air a documentary about the claims.
Wood had only positive things to say about Manson during their connection, according to the complaint, and she revealed nothing about his assaulting her for ten years until she met Gore, an artist who was Wood’s on-again, off-again love companion.
It was claimed that Wood and Gore conspired to “recruit, coordinate, and pressure prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously with allegations of rape and abuse against Warner, and brazenly claim that it took ten or more years to’realize’ their consensual relationships with Warner were allegedly abusive,” according to the suit.
According to the complaint, the ladies impersonated and falsified a letter from a genuine FBI agent to give the false impression that Manson, who was under federal investigation, was threatening women and their families.
It claims they gave potential accusers checklists and scripts outlining what accusations to make and how to make them.
The complaint includes copies of the letter and the lists as evidence.
It further claims that the ladies hacked Manson’s email, phone, and social media accounts, constructed a false email to fabricate evidence that he was emailing illegal pornography, and “swatted” him by sending police to his house with a hoax call in order to attract more attention to the charges.
According to the complaint, several of the women who were approached declined to participate because they were asked to say things that were false.
In a statement, Manson’s attorney Howard King stated, “This thorough lawsuit has been filed to cease a campaign of nasty and unwarranted assaults against Brian Warner.”
Wood has refrained from pursuing Manson in court. Esmé Bianco of “Game of Thrones” and Ashley Walters, Manson’s former secretary, have sued him over sexual assault charges.
Unless they come out publicly, the Associated Press does not usually name anyone who claim to have been sexually abused.
