Evan Rachel Wood will not have to face defamation claims from Marilyn Manson accusing her of manufacturing a conspiracy to portray him as a serial abuser who has sexually assaulted several women.
At the center of the dispute were allegations that Wood and her friend Illma Gore lied to prospective accusers to encourage them to come forward with sexual assault allegations against the musician, namely by saying that he filmed the assault of a minor in a 1996 short film he made called Groupie. In a tentative ruling adopted by the court on Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa Beaudet tossed claims against Wood under a law providing for the dismissal of suits arising out of protected speech.
Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, sued the pair in 2021 ahead of the premiere of HBO documentary Phoenix Rising, which explores sexual assault allegations against the musician and Wood’s efforts to pass legislation that extends the statute of limitations for domestic violence cases in California. He alleged that they recruited and pressured women to simultaneously emerge with allegations of rape and abuse against Warner to boost Wood’s career. To convince the accusers, Gore told them that the actress in Groupie was a minor at the time of the shoot, was dead and that Warner would be indicted if the video was released, according to the complaint.
In his suit, Warner didn’t allege that Wood made false statements about “Groupie” but that she “condoned and encouraged Gore” to...
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