Marilyn Manson suing Evan Rachel Wood for defamation
Marilyn Manson is suing Evan Rachel Wood for defamation, Variety, Deadline, and TMZ report. The suit comes over a year after Wood accused him of abuse, saying, “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years.” Manson denied the allegations at the time, calling them “horrible distortions of reality,” and in his suit, Manson, real name Brian Warner, calls them “malicious falsehood.” He claims that Wood and Ashley Gore, who he calls “her on-again, off-again romantic partner,” “publicly cast” him as a “rapist and abuser — a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV and film career.”
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The filing goes on to claim that Wood and Gore impersonated a FBI agent “by forging and distributing a fictitious letter from the agent, to create the false appearance that Warner’s alleged ‘victims’ and their families were in danger, and that there was a federal criminal investigation of Warner ongoing.” It also alleges that Wood and Gore “provided checklists and scripts” to accusers and “made knowingly false statements,” including that Manson “filmed the sexual assault of a minor.” Manson has requested a jury trial and is also alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress, violation of the Comprehensive Computer Data and Access Fraud Act and impersonation over the internet.
Representatives for Wood did not respond to requests for comment from Variety and Deadline.
Other women came forward with Wood to accuse Manson of abuse, including Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco, former partner Ashley Morgan Smithline, and former assistant Ashley Walters.
