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Marilyn Manson. | Photo by Luca De Santis via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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Marilyn Manson Wednesday sued his former girlfriend, actress Evan Rachel Wood, alleging she and another woman caused him emotional distress by encouraging other women to make false accusations of sexual abuse against him.
“This action arises from the wrongful and illegal acts done in furtherance of a conspiracy by … Evan Rachel Wood and her on-again, off-again romantic partner, Ashley Gore … to publicly cast Marilyn Manson as a rapist and abuser, a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner’s successful music, TV and film career,” according to the Los Angeles Superior Court suit, which seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
The 53-year-old Manson’s real name is Brian Hugh Warner.
The sexual abuse allegations against Manson prompted his record label and manager to drop him and he also lost his role in the TV show “American Gods.”
The suit also accuses Gore of defamation, alleging she had multiple conversations with prospective “accusers” against the singer in which she claimed that a 1996 short film made by Manson called “Groupie” depicted child abuse and child pornography. During one such conversation in 2021, Gore said that the actress in “Groupie” was a minor at the time of the shoot and was dead, and that, if the video were to be seen, Manson would be indicted, according to the suit.
“Gore’s statements about Warner and `Groupie’ are demonstrably false,” the suit states. “Gore knew they were false or acted with reckless disregard of their falsity.”
Representatives for Wood and Gore could not be immediately reached for comment.
Wood and Manson were in a relationship from 2006-10. The suit states that in the decade after they broke up, Wood never once accused Manson of abuse until she met 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.”
Wood decided that with Gore’s help she could be rebranded from someone who might at best be known for dating Marilyn Manson into an “outspoken standard bearer for victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, thereby absolving her reputation for having a wild past and her embarrassment for having been in a long-term relationship with Marilyn Manson,” the suit states.
Wood and Gore forged and distributed a phony letter from a supposed FBI agent to create the false appearance that Manson’s alleged victims and their families were in danger, the suit states.
“They provided checklists and scripts to prospective accusers, listing the specific alleged acts of abuse that they should claim against (Manson),” the suit states.
Wood alleged in a 2021 Instagram post that while she and Manson were in a relationship, he “horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission. I am done living in fear of retaliation, slander, or blackmail. I am here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives. I stand with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
