Marilyn Manson has filed a lawsuit against ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood, alleging that she was abused by the shock musician throughout their relationship.
The case was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday morning. “This action arises from the wrongful and illegal acts done in furtherance of a conspiracy by Defendant Evan Rachel Wood and her on-again, off-again romantic partner, Defendant Ashley Gore, a/k/a Illma Gore, to publicly cast Plaintiff Brian Warner, p/k/a Marilyn Manson, as a rapist and abuser—a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV, and film career,”
The action, which seeks a jury trial, goes on to accuse Evan Rachel Wood and Gore of hacking into the singer’s computers and social media accounts, as well as “creating a phony email account to produce supposed evidence that Warner was emailing unlawful pornography,” according to the suit. Even greater bombshells of jurisdictional and ethical relevance are dropped in the colorful complaint:
They impersonated an actual agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 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 (Attachment A);
They provided checklists and scripts to prospective accusers, listing the specific alleged acts of abuse that they should claim against Warner (Attachments B and C); and
They made knowingly false statements to prospective accusers (which have since been repeated by those accusers in court filings), including the defamatory claim that Warner filmed the sexual assault of a minor.
Marilyn Manson’s legal team against Evan Rachel Wood’s “Malicious Falsehood”
Howard King, Manson’s chief lawyer, said “We’re filing this now because we have been able to gather an overwhelming trove of evidence – including both documents and witness statements – which proves that the stories that Evan Rachel Wood and her co-conspirator Illma Gore have been falsifying and spreading are both vindictive and demonstrably untrue.
It’s incredibly important to differentiate between the character of Marilyn Manson and the man Brian Warner. Wood’s claims may resonate because of the intentionally ‘shocking’ character of ‘Marilyn Manson’ but they simply do not reflect the truth. The manufactured facts these conspirators scripted a decade after the event never happened.”
Today, Evan Rachel Wood’s representatives did not reply to a request for comment on the case. We’ll keep you updated if and when they do.
Wednesday‘s complaint seeks specific damages and ” an order enjoining Wood and Gore from engaging in further wrongful conduct toward Warner,” two weeks before filmmaker Amy Berg’s two-part documentary about Wood’s claims, Phoenix Rising, premieres on HBO.
The documentary follows Wood’s origins and the roots of her supposedly lethal dalliance with Manson, with the first chapter premiering at Sundance in January. Phoenix Rising digs into Wood’s claim that she was sexually abused on camera at the age of 19 in Manson’s graphic 2007 video for “Heart-Shaped Glasses,” as well as her participation in the passage of California’s statute of limitations-extending Phoenix Act.
Evan Rachel Wood accused Marilyn Manson of “horrifically” assaulting and “grooming” from 2007 to 2010
At the moment, neither Berg nor the WarnerMedia-owned premium cabler is mentioned as defendants in the “defamation per se” lawsuit. “Wood and Gore has also affected Amy Berg and HBO,” King said. “They were duped into making a documentary based on false claims and fraudulent documents.”
The savage multi-claim lawsuit comes a little over a year after Evan Rachel Wood made a public apology on social media. During their connection from 2007 to 2010, when the Emmy nominee was still a minor, Marilyn Manson was accused of “horrifically” assaulting and “grooming” her. Evan Rachel Wood’s assertions were labeled “terrible distortions of fact” by Manson, who was quickly discarded by his record company, TV jobs, and CAA. Others, like Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco, have now come out with their own complaints and lawsuits alleging physical and psychological abuse by the “Antichrist Superstar” singer.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau launched an investigation into various abuse accusations that happened between 2009 and 2011 when Manson was living in West Hollywood in February 2021. The LASD did not reply to a Deadline request for information on the investigation’s status today. However, law enforcement sources tell us that the investigation is still underway.
