LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) Ashley Judd filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein this morning, alleging that the former movie mogul spread lies about her to ruin her career because she rejected his sexual advances.
Judd had said in an interview that Weinstein once invited her to his hotel room to discuss her career but instead was asked to give him a massage and watch him shower. The lawsuit claims that her rejection of those advances directly led to her loss of movie roles, particularly for “The Lord of the Rings,” which began casting a year later.
In the lawsuit, director Peter Jackson says that he wanted to cast Judd in a significant part but Weinstein, who’s company Miramax was in charge of the project at the time, said no, that Judd was a “nightmare” to work with.
Jackson came forward with the claims in December. The lawsuit claims that, until that moment, Judd did not know that “something unseen was holding her back from obtaining the work she wanted, and had been doing so for decades,” according to the New York Times.
Weinstein has denied that he said anything disparaging about the actress to Jackson, but Jackson said, in public comments in December, that his creative partner Fran Walsh “remembers these negative comments about Ashley and Mira as clearly as I do.”
Jackson was referring to Mira Sorvino who claims Weinstein once chased her around a hotel room and claims that Weinstein has harassed her.
“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,” a Weinstein spokesman said in a statement.
