Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Werner) has filed a lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood for defamation, emotional distress, and "impersonation over the internet." According to a report by Rolling Stone, Manson accuses Wood and her friend Illma Gore of conspiring to paint Manson as "a rapist and abuser." This lawsuit from Manson surfaces only a few weeks after Wood's documentary Phoenix Rising was announced to be released on HBO.
"Warner's lawsuit claims Wood and Gore impersonated an FBI agent to give the appearance that a federal investigation into Warner's alleged crimes was ongoing," said the report from Rolling Stone. "They allegedly sent letters from this agent to women who would later make public allegations against Warner to suggest that they were in danger. Warner also claims that Wood and Gore 'provided checklists and scripts to prospective accusers, listing the specific alleged acts of abuse that they should claim against Warner' and that they made false statements to these women 'including the defamatory claim that Warner filmed the sexual assault of a minor."
The suit also claims that Gore attempted to get into Manson's personal computer.
"This detailed complaint has been filed to stop a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks on Brian Warner," said Manson's lawyer Howard King. "Years after the end of Evan Rachel Wood's long-term relationship with Warner, she and her girlfriend Illma Gore recruited numerous women and convinced them to make false allegations against him — claims that Wood and Gore scripted for them. … Even though HBO and the producers have been made aware of these serious acts of misconduct, they have thus far chosen to proceed without regard for the facts. But the evidence of wrongdoing by Wood and Gore is irrefutable – and this legal action will hold them to account."
Wood and Manson have been making headlines for over a year after Wood publicly named Manson as her abuser in 2020. Wood detailed being mentally and physically tortured by an older man when she was 18-years-old, and most recently claimed Manson "once threatened to fuck her eight-year-old son." You can see the details of her original accusations here.
