Summary: Ashley Judd is suing Harvey Weinstein for sexual harassment and retaliation.
Actress Ashley Judd was one of the first people to accuse Harvey Weinstein on the record of sexual harassment, and she is now suing him for allegedly hurting her career.
In the late 1990s-early 2000s, Judd was a rising star who anchored several movies such as “Double Jeopardy” and “Kiss the Girls,” and she said that her career stalled shortly after she rebuffed Weinstein’s advances. In her lawsuit, she said that Weinstein vindictively set out to blacklist her, and she said that this caused harm to her reputation as well as bank account.
Judd cited “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson as a source that Weinstein had set out to kill her career. Following the New York Times expose about Weinstein that was published in October, Jackson admitted that he did not cast Judd in his hit fantasy series because Weinstein told him to avoid her.
Judd said that Weinstein had come onto her in the late 1990s in his hotel room. She had visited him for what she thought was a breakfast meeting, but when she showed up, he wore only a robe and wanted sexual favors. Judd said she refused, and he proceeded to “torpedo” her career.
Judd said she met with Jackson and his producing partner in 1998 to discuss roles in the “Lord of the Rings” but that they dropped the discussions after Weinstein told them she was “difficult” to work with.
“The pathetic reality, however, was 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,” Judd’s lawsuit said, according to CNN.
Judd’s claims are similar to those made by other actresses such as Mira Sorvino and Annabella Sciorra who said that Weinstein had also ruined their reputations out of retaliation.
In October, the New York Times published an article that stated Weinstein had sexually harassed numerous women throughout his decades-long career as a producer in Hollywood, and after that article ran, numerous women came forward to say he had harassed or raped them throughout the years.
Weinstein has denied all charges and maintained that he has only engaged in consensual sex. A rep told CNN that Weinstein has also denied ruining Judd’s career.
“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,” Weinstein’s attorney said.
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