Marilyn Manson Appeals His Defamation Lawsuit Against Evan Rachel Wood
Marilyn Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, seems to be made of Teflon because, no matter how much shit comes out about people accusing him of abusive behavior, grooming, and even sexual assault, nothing sticks to him as this dude’s fans don’t give a single flying fuck. In fact, I don’t particularly feel like writing this piece because I know that it’s not going to change the mind of any of those annoying Manson stans out there, so why bother? But Hesher is taking the day off and I feel a responsibility to cover major stories that happen, so here I am to tell you that, according to Rolling Stone, Manson filed an appeal on Tuesday of a judge’s decision to throw out his defamation case against Evan Rachel Wood.
Anyway, here’s the “Previously on…” section of this soap opera: Evan Rachel Wood has been implying for some time that Marilyn Manson was abusive, but in 2021 she finally named Manson in an Instagram post saying things like “He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years” and “I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission.” It is publicly known that Manson and Wood started dating when Manson was 36 and Wood was 18. You Manson stans are really okay with that? Alright, then, moving on.
More and more people came forward to accuse Manson of various things, inspired by Wood’s accusations. But, in 2022, Manson filed a defamation case against Wood claiming that she and a woman named Ashley Gore, a.k.a. Illma Gore, manipulated accusers into making false accusations against him, even claiming that Wood and Gore impersonated an FBI agent to pressure accusers into making false statements. The judge threw out the majority of the claims against Wood and Gore after they filed their anti-SLAPP motions and Manson was ordered to reimburse Wood $327,000 for attorney fees.
Manson’s luckiest break came last year when one of his accusers, model Ashley Morgan Smithline, recanted her accusations and claimed that Wood and Gore coerced her into making accusations against Manson. Wood denied this, and shared evidence that Manson’s attorney had been trying to pressure accusers like Smithline into claiming “it was all a ruse.”
Now, in the latest development, Manson is appealing the decision to throw out most of his defamation case against Wood, with his attorneys focusing on a letter, supposedly from an FBI agent, that they claim Wood and Gore fabricated to “create the false appearance that Warner was under FBI investigation and his ‘victims’ were in danger.”
In a statement he made to RS, Michael Kump, attorney for Ms. Wood, stated:
“Warner’s appeal simply rehashes the same meritless claims which the trial court threw out. As Ms. Wood testified under oath, she did not fabricate or forge the FBI letter.”
Look, I’m not saying that Marilyn Manson isn’t entitled to be treated as innocent until proven guilty, even in the court of public opinion. But with the sheer number of people who have come forward with accusations against him, you’d have to imagine a massive conspiracy against him was taking place. In fact, as I went back through all the MetalSucks articles written about Manson in the past few years to prepare for this piece, I realized that there were even a surprising number of accusations that I had forgotten about.
Remember when Corey Feldman came forward to accuse Manson of decades of abuse and grooming? Or the accusations that Manson and his wife, Lindsay Usich, tried to silence accusers online, sometimes even from fake accounts? Or when filmmaker Love Bailey accused Manson of pointing a gun at her head? In philosophy, there’s the principle called “Occam’s razor” that says that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, and to suggest that an actress and her friend orchestrated this massive conspiracy and persuaded dozens of people to make false accusations about Manson simply isn’t the most likely explanation.
But hey, if you want to justify listening to his new singles, I guess that’s what you need to do.
