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What Was Dan Cleary Talking About? Is He a Witness of Evan Rachel Wood's Abuse?

Before Dan Cleary was Marilyn Manson's personal assistant in 2014, he worked as a keyboard tech for the 2007-08 Rape of the World Tour. Before Evan Rachel Wood named Marilyn Manson as her abuser in February 2021, Dan Cleary named him as her abuser in September 2020, which is why he is featured so prominently in Evan Rachel Wood's documentary Phoenix Rising , where Evan describes him as the one who changed everything. Here I would like to only address one claim made by Dan Cleary, which he has repeatedly made. Dan likes to make big claims that upon examination prove to be exaggerated, presenting himself as more insightful and important than he really is. I wanted to see if this was the case also with the claim that he supposedly witnessed Evan being abused over time. Let's see what he said about it in September 2020 on Twitter: On his February 18, 2021 podcast, where he further explained what he witnessed with Evan, Dan says that he wrote his September 2020 tweet after an ab

The Relationship of Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood (Part 1: January 2007 - October 2008)


How the Relationship Began

In the August issue of Elle U.K. magazine in 2007 there is an interview with 19 year old Evan Rachel Wood titled "Dark Angel" in which she explains how she met Marilyn Manson at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles in 2006; she was 18 and he was 37, married to Dita Von Teese at the time. The interview took place at the Chateau Marmont, for which reason she commented about a particular sofa there:

""I love this place and this is my favourite sofa. This is where I met Manson, both of us hiding in the corner of a party neither of us wanted to be at."

In the April 2007 issue of Le Parisien, Manson explained how when he first met Evan he asked her to be in his upcoming horror film, Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. It was to feature Evan and British teen model Lily Cole sharing the role of Alice in Wonderland.

Both insist a romantic relationship between the two did not exist while Manson was married to Dita. Evan says they became "movie buddies" while Dita was away in Las Vegas for extended periods of time. Dita filed for divorce from Manson on December 29, 2006 citing "irreconcilable differences", with lifestyle differences and Manson's friendship with Evan being the primary factors.

Evan goes on to explain in Elle U.K. how their relationship began after Manson's divorce:

"We became movie buddies until one night when we suddenly looked into one another's eyes and knew."

She expressed how unfair she has been attacked for simply "falling in love", saying:

"I've seen blogs where I've been called a slut, a whore, that say I should be condemned to death simply because I've fallen in love. Surely the fact that we are both prepared to go through all this proves just how important - and real - our love is, no? Everyone is so worried that I'm losing myself but really I'm finding myself. I've never been more comfortable in my own skin."

In November 2016 Evan told Rolling Stone about her attitude when she began dating Manson:

"I met somebody that promised freedom and expression and no judgments, and I was craving danger and excitement. I looked at my mother one day and said, 'Mom, I'm gonna get on this tour bus for eight months and see the world and have a crazy journey and find myself, and if people aren't OK with that, I'm sorry, but I can't live my life for other people."

Evan's Obsession With Nabokov's Lolita

On July 7, 2009, after the first breakup of Evan and Manson, Evan was interviewed by Vanity Fair to promote her film Whatever Works. During this interview, she was asked about Nabokov's Lolita, since the film is about the relationship of a young woman and a much older man, and she talked about her obsession as a young girl with Nabokov's Lolita. It is clear from the interview that Evan did not view her relationship with Manson as being in the "Lolita-like" territory, since she does not even mention him.

The interviewer asked:

"Melody and Boris don't actually kiss in this movie. Is that what makes it non-creepy? As long as it's platonic, it's okay to have romantic feelings for an older man?"

"Yeah. As funny as that would've been, I'm glad we never crossed that line. Nobody can give us a hard time about their relationship being creepy or weird. It's not some old guy's wet dream. It's just a sweet comedy about a very unlikely pair."

"So would it be fair to say you're not a big Nabokov fan?"

"That would be unfair. Not a Nabokov fan? I'm a huge Nabokov fan!"

"Well now you've confused me. You think old dudes having sex with young girls is creepy and weird, and yet you love Nabokov. How is that not a contradiction?"

"It depends on how it's handled. Whatever Works is just not about a sexual relationship at all. These characters both feel alone, and their personalities couldn't be more opposite, and they're fascinated by each other. Boris needs somebody to take care of him, and Melody loves taking care of people. But it's not real love. It's just comfort. If we were going into Lolita territory, that's a whole different story."

"So you wouldn't be opposed to exploring your Lolita freaky side?"

"Well, I kinda have. In Down in the Valley, I was sixteen and my character had a relationship with Edward Norton. But that's as Lolita freaky as I've gotten. I do have an obsession with the Nabokov book. I collect heart-shaped glasses—I have about fifty pairs right now—and I used to dress up like Lolita all the time as a teenager, right down to the one sock. I was hardcore."

"Did that freak out your parents? Lolita's not exactly the most wholesome role model for a teenage girl."

"Yeah, my mother was a little worried when she realized I was reading it and loving it so much. I was home-schooled since the seventh grade, so I didn't have the required reading you usually get in public school. I got to choose which books I wanted to read. So when my mom noticed I'd picked up Lolita, it definitely made her nervous. She was like, 'I didn't know you were going to be reading that kinda stuff.' I was like, 'Oh c'mon, Mom! It's Nabokov! It's a classic!'"

The Heart-Shaped Glasses Video

Marilyn Manson released the album Eat Me, Drink Me on June 5, 2007. In many ways it is a biographical album about the depression he felt after his separation in October 2006 and the renewed life he felt when he became friends with Evan and began dating in January 2007. The song Heart-Shaped Glasses was inspired by Evan, which Manson wrote after Evan came to his house one day wearing heart-shaped glasses as seen on the movie poster for Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film Lolita. Since it was inspired by Evan, Manson had her star in the music video and made it the first single off the album.

Manson explained during an interview with Energy in 2007 that Evan wore those glasses that day as a joke because people were comparing their relationship to the 1955 novel:

"People think that because she's younger than me that there's a 'Lolita' relationship there. We thought that was very amusing to us. When I saw her wearing those, the first thing I said to her was, 'If you break my heart, I'll break your glasses.' And I meant it in an almost violent way but also in a romantic way."

He added that much of Eat Me, Drink Me was a result of his romance with Evan, who he called his "twin."

The video begins with Manson and Evan having passionate sex (although the footage is not explicit in any way) with the song Evidence playing in the background. After the short sex scene is over, Manson and Evan are shown in a car driving recklessly while Manson is taking pictures of Evan posing with a butcher knife. After this, the song begins to play, and Manson is shown performing in front of a crowd in a dimly-lit room, while Evan is seen dancing in the midst of the crowd wearing heart-shaped glasses. The performance is interspliced with scenes of them driving and having sex while blood rains down upon them. At the end of the song, they are shown again driving the car as they utter the words "Together as one - against all others", right before driving off a cliff.

In her August 8, 2007 interview with GQ magazine, Evan talks about her involvement in the video:

"We made it for each other. I just wanted to show that it’s okay to have different, weird ideas about romance. At the end of the video, we’re kissing and it’s raining blood—and for me, that was one of the most romantic moments of my entire life."

She further explained:

"Because that’s how we were feeling at the time: Even though ugliness can be all around you—you can literally be in a thunderstorm of blood—if you look past that, it really is just two people holding on to each other. And you know, the same thing with the sex scene. If you’re going to have a sex scene, that’s what it is. When you’re with someone and you’re in love, that’s usually what happens. It’s not always soft. Sometimes it’s somebody screaming or whatever.…"
 
Evan Rachel Wood's Fuck List
 
Evan Rachel Wood accompanied Marilyn Manson for most of his Rape of the World Tour from May 2007 to March 2008. On May 27, 2010 Marilyn Manson posted on MySpace a Fuck List Evan wrote during this tour, while in Glasgow, Scotland, which shows a compatible mentality with Manson:


Evan Explained How People Don't Get Manson's Irony and Satire

In the November 2008 issue of Interview, Evan talked about how awful it was that Manson was blamed for Columbine:

"I thought how awful it was that an artist like him could be blamed for something like that-someone who brings so much to the world and, if anything, probably comforts kids who are in pain by saying, 'You’re not alone.' What’s funny is that when people pointed the finger at him and his lyrics [to prove their point], they didn’t realize he’d been warning them all along by saying how fucked up everything was. They didn’t get his irony or satire, but took everything literally. Everything evolves when you break the rules. But it’s not going to take a knock on the door-you have to kick it open. That’s why I love music so much. It completely saved me. There are so many feelings you can’t explain, and you can hear one note on a guitar and somehow that sound explains what you can’t put into words. I haven’t got many tattoos, but the two that are most important to me are music tattoos. I have a black heart with a lightning bolt down the middle. And the black heart was for Manson and the lightning bolt down the middle was for David Bowie. That one is right under my left hip bone. And the other one is on my left ankle. It’s a black diamond with circles that keep swirling and swirling, and it’s surrounded by sort of crazy diamonds because Pink Floyd’s 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' really inspired me, and everybody’s called me Crazy Diamond since I was a teenager, so it was always important to me."

Life Together

In the same issue of Interview, Evan talked about her relationship with Manson:

"I had been in a place where I was letting too many people dictate who I should be and what I should be, and I was trying to make everybody happy to the point where it was just killing me. I’d completely lost myself. It’s kind of funny now that people think I’ve completely changed myself for him, when this is actually the first time in my life that I took a stand and said, 'This is who I am and this is who I’ve always wanted to be, and I’m finally with somebody who lets me be who I want to be.' He never tells me what to do or what to wear or who to be. It’s all my decision and he respects it, and that’s what’s important. So more than the relationship, it’s me out on my own, finding myself and being in an environment where I can do that and learning how to deal with the shit you’re going to get back from it."

In the GQ interview cited above, she further explained:

"When we first met, he took me up to the roof to just shoot pellet guns—at nothing! People would be surprised at the kind of healthy, loving relationship we have. If it doesn’t work out, I would never blame it on the fact that he’s Marilyn Manson."

In France's Le Parisien newspaper in April of 2007, Manson said of Evan:

"I've found my double, my twin, with my new girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood. She's 19 and certainly that's very young, but that's not a problem for me. She likes the same things as me. She understands I like to get up when night falls and go to sleep at dawn."

In the Elle U.K. interview cited above, Evan talked about Manson's hard-partying reputation with drinking and drugs:

"I am hopeless at drinking. I’m not saying I’m an angel, I just don’t have an addictive personality. Even today, with Manson, I’m happier staying home watching movies. You should see his house, omigod, it’s a hurricane of creativity. And it’s making me feel more creative than ever before. I’m writing poetry, songs, taking photographs, experimenting with fashion, everything.”

She further explained in the same interview her relationship with Manson as being "lovely, really human and just amazing. It may surprise you just how healthy and loving our relationship is.”

“He’s crazy!” she said, laughing. “And crazy, by the way, is the highest compliment I pay. Manson is definitely crazy. Hopefully I am, too."

Concluding Remarks:

Everything you hear from Manson and Evan during this time of their relationship is filled with sweet feelings for one another as the world looked at their relationship with confusion and mostly negative feelings. It was a love that emerged from a mutually much-needed friendship and bond of understanding. Both expressed during this time as being unsatisfied with their lives until they found each other, and their creative juices began to flow energetically when they were together.  Though both would go on to evolve, during this time their relationship was strong, but their careers were leading them in different directions.


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