Marilyn Manson must reimburse the other party’s legal costs

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teresa A. Beaudet ordered a Marilyn Manson to pay the legal costs of Evan Rachel Wood accrued while she was defending herself against charges of defamation and emotional distress, which have since been removed from the lawsuit Manson still has pending against her.

The amount to be repaid, equal to $326,956, is slightly less than the total requested by Wood – $388,000 – because Judge Beaudet sided with Manson’s lawyers, who pointed out that some of the hours billed were too “vague” in the their descriptions.

It all stems from the defamation lawsuit Manson filed in March 2022, claiming that Wood, with his friend Illma Gore, had publicly called the singer “a rapist and an abuser” in order to “ruin his career in music, television and successful film”.

In May 2023, Judge Beaudet dismissed many of the allegations in that lawsuit, including Manson’s claim that Wood “recruited, coordinated, and pressured” women to make false statements about him and another in which the singer claimed that the other party had forged an FBI letter.

However, the case is not yet closed. Manson’s claims that Wood and Gore conspired to hack into his computer, posed as him online and called for police to surround his home are still awaiting a verdict. The trial is currently scheduled for May 1.

Last December, a lawsuit accusing Marilyn Manson of sexual assault, discrimination, battery and harassment by his former personal assistant Ashley Walters was revived in an appeals court. Just a few months earlier, in September, Manson had settled a 2021 lawsuit brought by an anonymous Jane Doe who accused him of raping, depriving her of food, and threatening her between 2010 and 2013.