AP
Washington Hispanic:
Marilyn Manson was dumped by her record label Monday after actor Evan Rachel Wood accused her ex-fiancé of sexual abuse and other physical abuse, claiming she was “manipulated into submission” during their relationship.
Manson called the accusations “horrible distortions of reality.”
Wood, who stars in HBO’s “Westworld,” had spoken frequently in recent years about being abused in a relationship, but did not name the person; until he posted on Instagram on Monday.
“The name of my abuser is Brian Warner, also known to the world as Marilyn Manson,” Wood said. “He started grooming me as a teenager and abused me terribly for years.”
Manson’s record label, Loma Vista Recordings, said in a statement that after the “disturbing allegations,” it will “stop promoting his current album further” and “has also decided not to work with Marilyn Manson on any future projects.”
Wood and Manson’s relationship went public in 2007 when he was 38 and she was 19, and they briefly got engaged in 2010 before breaking up.
Wood, now 33, said in her post that Manson left her “brainwashed and manipulated into submission.”
“I have finished living in fear of reprisals, slander or blackmail. I’m here to expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins more lives, ”added the post.
He concluded: “I am with the many victims who will no longer be silent.”
Manson responded with his own Instagram post Monday night.
“Obviously my art and my life have long been a magnet for controversy, but these recent claims about me are horrible distortions of reality,” his publication said. “My intimate relationships have always been fully consensual with like-minded couples. Regardless of how – and why – others are now choosing to misrepresent the past, that is the truth.
It was not immediately clear whether Wood has gone to authorities with any of his allegations, and a representative did not immediately respond when asked by email if he had.
In 2018, Los Angeles County prosecutors refused to press charges against Manson on charges of assault, battery and sexual battery dating back to 2011, saying they were limited by statutes of limitations and lack of corroboration. The accuser in that case was identified only as a social acquaintance of Manson.
He denied the allegations through his attorney at the time.
In 2017, Wood was one of thousands of women who identified themselves as victims of sexual harassment or assault amid the #MeToo movement.
“Being raped once made it easier to be raped again. Instinctively I shut off. My body remembered, so it protected me. I disappeared. #metoo, ”Wood wrote at the time as part of a series of tweets about his experience.
In 2018, he testified about his abuse to a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Judiciary while seeking to pass a Bill of Rights for Survivors of Sexual Assault in all 50 states.
“My experience with domestic violence was this: toxic mental, physical and sexual abuse that started out slow but escalated over time,” he told the committee.
Wood began acting as a child, earning fame and a Golden Globe nomination for playing a troubled teenager in 2003’s “Thirteen.”
For three seasons, she has played Dolores Abernathy, a sensitive android, on HBO’s “Westworld,” and has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for the role.
The 52-year-old Manson became a household name in the mid-1990s with a string of hit rock albums and used a skittish persona designed to fuel and fuel controversy.
The Associated Press does not normally name people who say they were victims of sexual assault, but it is naming Wood because of his decision to speak publicly.
–
