Left: Marilyn Manson at The 2016 Fashion Awards held on December 5, 2016 at The Royal Albert Hall in London, England, UK (File Photo by: zz/KGC-03/STAR MAX/IPx 2016). Right: Right: Evan Rachel Wood speaks onstage at Let’s Get WEIRD panel during New York Comic Con 2022 on October 09, 2022 in New York (NDZ/STAR MAX photo).
Marilyn Manson has dropped his yearslong lawsuit against former girlfriend actor Evan Rachel Wood — and has agreed to pay Wood over $300,000 in attorneys fees.
The singer — whose actual name is Brian Warner — sued Wood for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in 2022, alleging that sexual abuse allegations that Wood and others made against him had been fabricated.
At the heart of Warner’s lawsuit was the allegation that Wood and her girlfriend Ashley Gore engaged in a scheme to fabricate sexual abuse allegations and get other women to do the same. Part of the plot, Warner argued, included the creation of a fake letter from an FBI agent that created the illusion that Warner was under investigation.
The prior year, Wood publicly accused Warner, her former fiance, of being the rapist whose brutal crimes she had detailed to a congressional subcommittee three years earlier. In the congressional testimony, Wood graphically described severe sexual abuse, and after she named him publicly, other women spoke out and said they too had been victimized.
According to Warner, Wood and Gore spent years secretly enlisting women to accuse him, all to strengthen their ongoing film project. In court documents, Warner called Wood’s allegation that he is a rapist “a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV, and film career.”
After Wood and Gore filed a motion to dismiss under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, a judge gutted Warner’s case and threw out the majority of his allegations. However, the shock-rocker appealed, arguing that there was significant evidence that the abuse allegations were falsified and that the fake FBI letter should have been admitted as evidence.
Warner changed course dramatically on Monday when he agreed to settle his case against Wood and pay her $327,000 in attorneys fees. According to a statement released by Wood’s attorneys, Warner originally offered to pay just a portion of Wood’s legal fees, but relented when Wood refused, ultimately agreeing to pay Wood’s entire legal bill.
Law&Crime has reviewed the settlement agreement, which has not been made public, which discharges Wood from the legal claims Warner made against her.
Michael J. Kump, attorney for Evan Rachel Wood, called Warner’s “failed” lawsuit “a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career,” in an emailed statement to Law&Crime Tuesday.
“As the trial court correctly found, Warner’s claims were meritless,” Kump said. “Warner’s decision to finally abandon his lawsuit and pay Ms. Wood her full fee award of almost $327,000 only confirms as much.”
Representatives for Warner did not immediately respond to request for comment.
