
A big sigh of relief for Evan Rachel Wood as the actress will not have to face defamation claims from Marilyn Manson after he accused her of conspiring against him in trying to portray that he was a serial abuser and would assault women. He claimed that Evan Rachel Wood and her friend Illma Gore lied to prospective accusers to encourage them to come forward with sexual assault allegations against the musician. In particular, this was about him filming the assault of a minor in a 1996 short film he made called Groupie.
The judge presiding the case has, however, ruled in favour of Wood.
Marilyn Manson sued them in 2021 ahead of the premiere of the HBO documentary Phoenix Rising, which explores sexual assault allegations against the musician. He alleged that they recruited and pressured women to come up with bogus allegations of rape and abuse against Marilyn Manson to boost Evan Rachel Wood’s career.
In his suit, Marilyn didn’t allege that the actress made false statements but that she “condoned and encouraged Gore” to do so. To prove defamation, Marilyn Manson had to prove that the defendants acted with “actual malice”-- that they either knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
The judge thus dismissed the defamation claim, pointing to a lack of evidence that she doubted the Groupie actress was an adult.
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