An HBO documentary featuring actress Evan Rachel Wood, “Phoenix Rising,” recently premiered at the Sundance film festival. In the doc, Wood alleges “traumatizing” abuse by shock rocker Marilyn Manson and that she was “coerced into a commercial sex act under false pretenses” while filming the 2007 video for “Heart Shaped Glasses.” “The documentary follows actress and activist Evan Rachel Wood as she takes her experience as a survivor of domestic violence to pursue justice, heal generational wounds and reclaim her story,” reads the synopsis of the film. “Almost a decade after escaping a dangerous relationship, Wood co-authors and successfully lobbies for passage of The Phoenix Act, legislation that extends the statute of limitations for domestic violence cases in California. Wood courageously uses her own experience to bring visibility to the issue; ultimately, in solidarity with fellow survivors.”
Now, according to The Blast, Manson has filed a lawsuit against Wood over the allegations. Manson’s attorney Howard King said the singer “did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth.” Manson’s lawsuit accuses Wood of intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, computer fraud, and impersonation over the Internet. The documents filed Wednesday state: “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.”
Manson also accuses Wood of impersonating “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. They provided checklists and scripts to prospective accusers, listing the specific alleged acts of abuse that they should claim against Warner.”
Wood claims the video shoot was “the first crime (Manson) committed against me. It’s nothing like I thought it was going to be,” Wood said. “We’re doing things that were not what was pitched to me. … We had discussed a simulated sex scene, but once the cameras were rolling, he started penetrating me for real. I had never agreed to that. I’m a professional actress, I’ve been doing this my whole life; I’ve never been on a set that unprofessional in my life up until this day.”
