Marilyn Manson has launched an appeal seeking to revive his defamation lawsuit against ex-fiance Evan Rachel Wood, arguing a lower judge who dismissed much of the case ignored key evidence.
Manson (real name Brian Warner) sued Wood in 2022, claiming she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured” women to make false abuse allegations against him. But a Los Angeles judge tossed out most of the case in a ruling last year.
That ruling came under California’s anti-SLAPP statute — a law that aims to make it easier for judges to quickly dismiss cases that threaten free speech. Wood’s lawyers claimed Manson’s case was exactly that: a prominent musician using a lawsuit to try to silence someone speaking out about alleged abuse.
But in an appeal lodged on Tuesday, Manson’s lawyers argued that a lower judge had repeatedly misapplied that statute to prematurely end a valid lawsuit that had been aimed at exposing a “malicious campaign” by Wood and others.
“This is an appeal of an order granting two anti-SLAPP motions, in which the trial court rubber-stamped Defendants’ assertions of ‘protected activity’ before weighing and disregarding evidence to conclude that plaintiff Brian Warner could never prevail,” his attorneys write.
Manson also claims that the judge ignored key elements of the case, including “bombshell” testimony from another Manson accuser named Ashley Morgan Smithline, who says she “succumbed to pressure” from Wood to make “untrue” accusations against the singer.
Wood strongly denied those allegations, and the judge ultimately refused to consider Smithline’s testimony because it had been filed far past a key deadline for submitting evidence. In Wednesday’s appeal, Manson’s lawyers say that was a clear and reversible error.
“The trial court prioritized convenience over the core function of the anti- SLAPP statute, which is to dispose of truly meritless suits before discovery,” Manson’s lawyers write.
Wood is one of several women to accuse Manson of serious sexual wrongdoing over the past several years. Manson has denied all of the allegations, and many of the lawsuits filed against him have since been dropped, dismissed or settled.
Manson filed the current lawsuit against Wood in March 2022, accusing her and a woman named Illma Gore of launching an “organized attack” that had derailed his career. His lawyer said the women had carried out “a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks.”
But Wood quickly fought back, moving to strike Manson’s case under the anti-SLAPP law: “For years, plaintiff Brian Warner raped and tortured defendant Evan Rachel Wood and threatened retaliation if she told anyone about it,” her attorneys wrote. “Warner has now made good on those threats by filing the present lawsuit.”
In May 2023, Judge Teresa A. Beaudet largely granted that motion, ruling that Manson had not sufficiently shown that he would ultimately be able to prove many of those accusations against Wood, including that she had been “pressuring multiple women to make false accusations,” as well as the allegation that she had forged a letter from the FBI.
Anti-SLAPP laws, which exist in states across the country, work by putting more burden than usual on defamation plaintiffs like Manson, forcing them to clearly show at the outset that their case is legitimate. In last year’s decision, Judge Beaudet said Manson had failed to do so.
“The court does not find that plaintiff has demonstrated a probability of prevailing on his [intentional infliction of emotional distress] claim based on the FBI Letter,” the judge wrote, referring to one of Manson’s specific legal claims.