Ashley Judd filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, accusing Harvey Weinstein of retaliating against her because she refused his sexual advances.
Judd contends that Weinstein smeared her reputation to director Peter Jackson, causing him not to cast her in “The Lord of the Rings.”
“Mr. Weinstein’s abusive conduct toward others has caused no end of damage to aspiring actors and others in the film and entertainment industry,” Judd said in a statement. “As my experience and the experience of others shows, even a few false statements from Mr. Weinstein could destroy potentially career-changing professional opportunities. It’s time that Mr. Weinstein be held accountable for that conduct and for the ways in which he’s damaged careers.”
Judd is seeking damages for defamation, sexual harassment and violations of California’s unfair business competition law.
Judd first revealed that she had been harassed by an unnamed studio mogul to Variety in 2015. She later identified the mogul as Weinstein to the New York Times. According to Judd, Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and tried to get her to watch him take a shower.
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Last winter, Jackson gave an interview in which he said that Miramax had warned him not to hire Mira Sorvino or Ashley Judd for “The Lord of the Rings.” Weinstein denied playing any role in the casting of the film.
Judd’s attorney, Theodore Boutrous of Gibson Dunn, said that any recovery from the suit would be donated to a charity that benefits women.
“The most basic investigation of the facts will reveal that Mr. Weinstein neither defamed Ms. Judd nor ever interfered with Ms. Judd’s career, and instead not only championed her work but also repeatedly approved her casting for two of his movies over the next decade. The actual facts will show that Mr. Weinstein was widely known for having fought for Ms. Judd as his first choice for the lead role in Good Will Hunting and, in fact, arranged for Ms. Judd to fly to New York to be considered for the role. Thereafter, Ms. Judd was hired for not one, but two of Mr. Weinstein’s movies, ‘Frida’ in 2002 and ‘Crossing Over’ with Harrison Ford in 2009. We look forward to a vigorous defense of these claims.”
Ashley Judd v Harvey Weinstein by gmaddaus on Scribd
DaydreamerRSM on May 1st, 2018 at 03:37 UTC »
Man what really hurts about this is how many other Actresses (and Actors) had their careers plummet for merely denying a creeps sexual advances. I'm willing to bet she is far from the only one who dropped from the face of Hollywood because of this :(
I sincerely hope more of them come forward.
jelatinman on May 1st, 2018 at 00:00 UTC »
I was going to say that this doesn't have much footing even with Weinstein's many accusers, but Peter Jackson explicitly cited her as someone Weinstein told him not to cast in The Lord of the Rings.
Edit: I thought I was giving this article more context. It’s the entire basis of the article and the lawsuit. I only read the headline until a minute ago.
Don’t forget to read articles on Reddit like I did.
BunyipPouch on April 30th, 2018 at 23:33 UTC »