Marilyn Manson sues Evan Rachel Wood for defamation over abuse claims

Marilyn Manson is suing ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood.

The singer (real name: Brian Hugh Warner) alleges in a new lawsuit filed on Wednesday that Wood conspired with her on-again, off-again girlfriend, Illma Gore, to defame him with rape allegations for their own monetary gain.

In the complaint obtained by Page Six, Manson, 53, claims Wood, 34, is guilty of intentionally inflicting emotional distress, defamation, impersonation and violating the Computer Data and Access Fraud Act.

Manson’s attorneys claim Wood never accused their client of abuse while they were together from 2006 to 2010 – or in the 10 years since they split – “until she met Gore,” whom they allege is 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.”

They claim Wood’s motivation for accusing Manson of abuse was to “absolve her reputation” for having a “wild past.”

In February 2021, Wood dropped a bombshell claim via Instagram and in a statement to Vanity Fair, alleging that Manson “started grooming” her when she was a teenager and “horrifically abused” her for years.

Manson’s attorneys allege in the new complaint that Wood’s social media post came after “months of conspiring with Gore on how to use Wood’s celebrity status to recruit other women and coordinate their ‘stories.'”

They claim that by the time Wood spoke out publicly, HBO had already signed on to work with her and Gore on a documentary in the summer of 2020.

The two-part doc, titled “Phoenix Rising,” is set to premiere on the network in March 2022. According to Deadline, it chronicles how Wood “takes her alleged experience as a survivor of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse by rock icon Marilyn Manson into her own hands to pursue justice, heal generational wounds, and reclaim her story.”

“Wood and Gore have derailed Warner’s career,” Manson’s attorneys allege in the complaint, adding that the two women have allegedly used their film project to “recruit,
coordinate, and pressure women who had been linked to Warner to make false accusations of abuse against him.”

At least 15 women — including actress Esmé Bianco — have accused “The Dope Show” singer of various levels of sexual, psychological and physical abuse.

An attorney for Manson told Page Six in April that Bianco’s allegations “are provably false.” Manson’s legal team has also denied all accusations of sexual assault. The singer has not been charged with any crime connected to the alleged incidents.

A sexual abuse lawsuit filed by Jane Doe was dismissed in September 2021 because it was past the statute of limitations.

Manson’s attorneys claim in the complaint that Gore convinced prospective accusers that their “failures to allege of abuse over the past 10 plus years was not
because no abuse occurred, but instead because abuse caused people to ‘repress’ their memories.”

They also allege that Gore and Wood once impersonated an FBI agent and created a “fictitious letter” stating the “Barefoot” star’s safety was in question. A text of the alleged efforts of Wood and Gore to come up with the script of the letter was submitted as evidence.

“Wood submitted the forged letter in a California custody proceeding, using it as supposed evidence for why she should be able to move her son to Tennessee,” the complaint states. “Citing and quoting from the letter, Wood lied under penalty of perjury.”

Additionally, Manson’s lawyers claim that Wood and Gore were guilty of “swatting,” a term used when law enforcement is wrongfully dispatched to a person’s home as a result of a hoax or a prank.

Cops swarmed the “Sweet Dreams” singer’s house in February 2021 following claims that someone was screaming that they “wanted to leave.”

The attorneys also accuse Wood and Gore of soliciting and receiving Manson’s logins and passwords for his personal, business, social media and email accounts without his permission.

“This detailed complaint has been filed to stop a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks on Brian Warner,” one of Manson’s attorneys, Howard King, told Page Six on Wednesday.

“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.”

King also claimed Wood and Gore used the “fabricated FBI letter” to “convince others to join their crusade” and “dupe HBO into distributing a one-sided ‘documentary’ premised on the existence of an entirely fictitious federal investigation.” 

“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,” the attorney concluded. “But the evidence of wrongdoing by Wood and Gore is irrefutable – and this legal action will hold them to account.”

Page Six has reached out to Wood and HBO for comment.