Evan Rachel Wood has denied she “manipulated” false testimony against Marilyn Manson from Ashley Morgan Smithline.
And the McCarthyite #MeToo train rumbles onward…
Wood’s abuse allegations against Manson, her former fiancée, destroyed the musician’s life, name, and career. Before anyone could say “due process, “he was blacklisted off the face of the earth.
Then other women came forward with similar allegations, including this Ashley Morgan Smithline, who has since recanted.
Manson, who is fighting back with a defamation suit against Wood, now has Smithline on his side. In a court declaration filed last week, Smithline said her previous abuse allegations against Manson were not true and that Wood pressured her to make the false charges:
Smithline said the alleged pressure by Wood made her question her own feelings. “While at first I knew Mr. Warner [Manson’s’ real name is Brian Hugh Warner] did not do these things to me, eventually I began to question whether he actually did,” Smithline said in her declaration.
Manson filed his suit against Wood last March claiming that Wood fabricated the accusations and also elicited another woman, Illma Gore, to fake documents and make false accusations against him.
Smithline also now says that Gore even wrote the statement she posted to Instagram accusing Manson of abuse.
In her own declaration filed Monday, Wood denied she pressured Smithline:
“I never pressured or manipulated Ashley Morgan Smithline to make any accusations against [Manson],” the “Thirteen” star, 35, said in a Feb. 27 declaration filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court in connected to Manson’s suit against Wood, obtained by Page Six Tuesday.
“And I certainly never pressured or manipulated her to make accusations that were not true.”
Wood then refuted the claim Smithline made in her legal declaration that people in Wood’s inner circle reached out with the intent to coerce her.
Look at this mess. Look at it.
He said.
She said.
No, she said.
No, she said.
Blah, blah, blah…
And what’s happening in the middle of this mess? Naked McCarthyism. Based on the unholy mess documented above, Marilyn Manson has lost everything: his name, his entire career, and probably no small amount of his fortune on legal fees.
Maybe he is guilty. Maybe he’s guilty as sin. But the key word there is MAYBE. In America, we are not supposed to rip a human being’s flesh from his bones based on a MAYBE.
The #MeToo movement makes Joe McCarthy look like Thomas Jefferson.
How’s this for a maybe…?
Maybe we should wait for the facts before we dismantle a human being’s life?
Maybe we should wait for due process before we move right to the penalty phase of career and reputation destruction?
Maybe we should behave like Americans and not Nazis?
If Manson is found guilty, hand me the book, and I’ll gladly throw it at him. But decent people don’t consider maybe good enough.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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