Marilyn Manson is suing Evan Rachel Wood for defamation a year after she accused him of sexual abuse. The suit was filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. In the filing obtained by SPIN, Manson claims that Wood and her “her on-again, off-again romantic partner” Ashley “Illma” Gore have publicly cast the shocker as “a rapist and abuser—a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV, and film career.”
In the suit, Manson alleges that Wood “soaked up the spirited rock-and-roll lifestyle that came with being Warner’s significant other” and goes on to say in the decade after they broke up, Wood never accused Manson of abuse until she met Gore. The suit calls Gore a “grifter who understood that an organized attack on Warner—spearheaded by Wood’s own fabricated revelation of rape and abuse—could benefit them both.”
The suit also claims that Wood and Gore impersonated an 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 alleges that Wood and Gore “provided checklists and scripts to prospective accusers, listing the specific alleged acts of abuse that they should claim against Warner.”
“This detailed complaint has been filed to stop a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks on Brian Warner. Years after the end of Evan Rachel Wood’s long-term relationship with Warner, she and her girlfriend Illma Gore recruited numerous women and convinced them to make false allegations against him – claims that Wood and Gore scripted for them,” Manson’s attorney, Howard King, said in a statement.
“As part of their plot, Wood and Gore illegally forged a letter impersonating an actual FBI agent and falsely claiming that she was conducting a criminal investigation of Warner. Wood and Gore used that fabricated FBI letter not only to convince others to join their crusade but also to dupe HBO into distributing a one-sided “documentary” premised on the existence of an entirely fictitious federal investigation. Even though HBO and the producers have been made aware of these serious acts of misconduct, they have thus far chosen to proceed without regard for the facts. But the evidence of wrongdoing by Wood and Gore is irrefutable – and this legal action will hold them to account.”
Manson is seeking an amount to be proven at trial and an order against them.
Last year, Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times published lengthy pieces detailing the accusations after Wood was the first of many women to come forward and accuse Marilyn Manson of sexually abusing them.
Wood debuted Phoenix Rising, a documentary that further detailed her abuse accusations against Manson, at Sundance earlier this year.
SPIN has reached out to a rep for Wood for comment.
