LOS ANGELES: On April 30, Hollywood actor Ashley Judd filed a defamation and sexual harassment lawsuit against film producer Harvey Weinstein, alleging that he damaged her movie career after she refused sexual advances that he was making towards her.
The civil lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica, accuses Weinstein of being the cause of Judd losing a part in the 1988 film ‘The Lord of the Rings’ by making “baseless smears” against her.
The lawsuit alleges that Weinstein “was retaliating against Ms Judd for rejecting his sexual demands approximately one year earlier, when he cornered her in a hotel room under the guise of discussing business.”
The lawsuit added, “Weinstein used his power in the entertainment industry to damage Ms Judd’s reputation and limit her ability to find work.”
However, a representative for Weinstein issued a statement hours later, saying that the onetime film studio chieftain had “neither defamed Ms Judd nor ever interfered with Ms Judd’s career.”
Instead, the statement made a completely different claim, saying that Weinstein “championed” Judd’s work and “repeatedly approved her casting for two of his movies” – Frida in 2002, starring Salma Hayek, and Crossing Over with Harrison Ford in 2009. It also said he had “fought for Ms Judd as his first choice for a lead role” in the movie ‘Good Will Hunting’.
The statement did not address Judd’s allegations, which she had made accusing Weinstein of sexual harassment.
Judd was one of the first women in October 2017 to make an on-the-record allegation of sexual misconduct against Weinstein, which soon afterward evolved into the massive social media #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault.