Skip to main content

Marilyn Manson Announced to Play 'HOG Fest - Shock & Awe' 2025 in Milwaukee

It was announced that 102.9 THE HOG and Manyo Motors will present HOG Fest - Shock and Awe 2025 with Five Finger Death Punch headlining and Marilyn Manson and The Funeral Portrait as guests. This will take place on Thursday, July 17th at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After spending a considerable amount of time on the road together this past summer, the three bands will reunite, though as far as we know it will be for one show only. PRESALE – Thursday, December 5th | 10AM – 10PM | USE CODE: OAUG1 ON SALE – Friday, December 6th | 10AM BUY TICKETS HERE    

Ten Thoughts and Observations I Had Rewatching Evan Rachel Wood's "Phoenix Rising" (Part One)


When the two-part documentary Phoenix Rising aired on HBO on March 15th and 16th 2022, I saw it and immediately wrote my review of part two, having already written my review of part one when I saw its premiere at Sundance over a month earlier. I didn't have much time to process it at the time, because it has a lot of information, and with limited space to write about it in a limited time, there was only so much you could address. After watching the documentary about 3 or 4 times, I realized I could easily write a book with all I had to say. Now that some time had passed since I last saw it, I just rewatched the documentary this past week on the anniversary of its premiere, and there were things that stood out to me that I didn't either capture a year ago or didn't have enough knowledge at the time to better comprehend. I will try to summarize my thoughts and observations into a list of ten things I wanted to address, though it could easily be more than ten, choosing five things from part one and five things from part two.

Phoenix Rising: Part One

1. A Strange Audio Edit

Evan now likes to exploit her victimhood with the fact that she was much younger than Marilyn Manson when they dated, and though she defended this age gap while they dated and were engaged, now she tries to make herself sound like she was so young that she was practically a child (anyone who looks back on themselves in their younger years sees themselves as practically a child), or she even calls herself a baby at one point to make Manson appear as monstrous and manipulative as possible. The fact is that though they met when she was 18, they did not start dating till she was 19, which is well within the age of consent for someone to not only date someone older, but to even marry someone older. These are basically the reasons why Evan in her documentary so often talks about how young she was. 
 
The first time this is referred to in the documentary is not more than four minutes in, when she is speaking over a clip (you can't see her saying it) and says the following:

"Brian and I were together on and off for about four and half years starting mid-2006 (when I was 18) till early 2011 when I made my final escape."

The reason I put the part "when I was 18" in parenthesis is because it is very clear from the audio that it was not in there during the initial cut but was edited in. Evan likely had this inserted there to use it as an opportunity to manipulate the viewer into reminding them how young she was, which she will go on to do repeatedly.

You can listen to the audio below without the imagery to confirm for yourself the clear edit, which has been confirmed to be an edit by an audio specialist:
 

 
2. The Kip Pardue Controversy

In Phoenix Rising, Evan reflects as an older woman and mom on her teenage years with a certain amount of horror, especially over the fact that she was often given Lolita-like roles (Lolita was a book she was obsessed with as a teenager, to the point where she would dress like Lolita even in private, which she does not mention in her documentary) and paired with older men in sexual or romantic ways. One scene she talks about is with Kip Pardue in the movie Thirteen, where she and Nikki Reed try to seduce him, an older man, into a threesome. In the documentary, Evan says that Kip is 23 years old, while she was 14. Though it is true that Evan was 14, Kip Pardue was in fact 28 years old, which is twice her age.  In fact, it is well known he was 28 and twice her age, just like Manson was twice her age when they dated. She also kissed Ed Norton in the 2005 film Down in the Valley, where he is also twice her age. It seems as if Evan wants Manson alone to be branded the monster by exaggerating the age gap and naming him, while she never names Pardue or Norton and even lowers Pardue's age.

Also, here is more information you can read online about the scene with Kip Pardue:

"Catherine Hardwicke said that when she invited actor Kip Pardue, who was 28, to her house to meet Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed for the first time, he was freaked out when he learned they were only 14 because of the scene they would have to film where he would be shirtless and kissing them. Nikki and Evan started laughing to put him at ease, but it didn't help. Hardwicke decided to make them rehearse the scene several times until Pardue's awkwardness went away, but it didn't help that a female welfare worker was also there watching to make sure the touching and kissing didn't get out of hand."

What we gather from this is that Evan tried to help Kip get through the scene, which was clearly more difficult for him than for her, and a female welfare worker was on set to make sure things didn't go too far.

And though Evan refers to her first boyfriend in the documentary, what she doesn't mention is that this first boyfriend was the actor who played her younger brother in Thirteen, Brady Corbet, who was 13 while Evan was 14 when they started dating. Not only did they start dating while filming, but they even moved into an apartment together when he was 13 and she was 14 after she had a a falling out with her mother, and they lived together alone for a year.

As for Kip Pardue, he would eventually be the first person to date Rose McGowan after she broke off her engagement to Marilyn Manson, dating from February to May of 2001, having met while filming Strange Hearts (2001). And on October 3rd 2002, Kip Pardue met and was photographed with Marilyn Manson in Hollywood at the premiere of The Rules of Attraction, which he starred in as the character named Victor. Apparently Marilyn Manson’s favorite part of the film is the note on Victor’s door saying “The test came back positive, be careful!” He liked it because Pardue used to date McGowan, and Manson humorously saw it is a warning to Pardue. Pardue replied to this as follows: “But anyway, Manson and I have become friends, and he’s a big fan of the movie as he should be because it’s brilliant.”

When he was 43, Kip Pardue was fined by SAG-AFTRA for $6,000 after being accused by actress Sarah Scott of masturbating in front of her in May 2018 during the filming of a pilot called Mogulettes. Pardue denied doing this, still he was one of the early accused of MeToo who faced consequences in his career, and I wonder if this has anything to do with Evan talking about him in the documentary, even though she doesn't name him, but we can see his face. By associating him negatively with this scene in Thirteen, after being accused with MeToo allegations, it just makes Evan look like more of an innocent victim in a world of Hollywood pedophiles and monsters.

3. When Evan and Manson Met at the Chateau Marmont

Since last year, I have been able to figure out exactly the month and year when Evan and Manson first met at the penthouse party at the Chateau Marmont. They met some time in June of 2006. This is how I figured it out.

A. Marilyn Manson attended the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest premiere with Johnny Depp on June 24, 2006. During an interview with MTV, Manson uttered Evan's name for the first time in public when talking about his upcoming film he was working on called Phantasmagoria:

"I'm directing and playing ['Alice in Wonderland' author] Lewis Carroll, with Tilda Swinton and hopefully Evan Rachel Wood. Lily Cole, the model, is playing Alice."

As we know and as Evan says in the documentary, Manson first approached Evan with a proposition for her to have a role in his movie Phantasmagoria.

B. On May 12th 2007, Manson was interviewed for Mansonusa.com, where he was asked about first meeting Evan, to which he replied:

"I hadn't been really leaving the house. I had no real desire to do much of anything. We met and we talked about movies and I was very surprised that she liked a lot of the things that I like. A couple weeks later we met at a Radiohead concert. It was maybe one of a handful of friends that I was able to have or maintain the ability to be around. That's how our friendship began."

Here Manson mentions the fact that a few weeks after meeting, they met at a Radiohead concert. This concert I was able to determine took place in Los Angeles on June 29th 2006.

From this information, we can safely assume that Manson and Evan met at the Chateau Marmont probably in the middle of June 2006.

In Phoenix Rising, Manson is also described as wearing a shiny gold suit with a bunch of finger rings. However, based on information I received, when Manson attended one of these random penthouse parties at the Chateau Marmont, he never dressed up, but would usually just attend wearing pants and a t-shirt, which can be observed in photos online when he attends such parties. The gold jacket Evan describes was in fact worn by Manson a few months earlier when he attended a party with his wife Dita in New York City. One thing else: in 2006 Manson did not wear his signature collection of rings as he would later do. If you notice every photo of Manson from 2006, even when he dresses up for an event, he is not wearing multiple rings. I believe Evan is lying about his fashion choice to make him look like a pimp or a player who showed up with an agenda to lure his prey, namely the young and naive Evan Rachel Wood. Meanwhile, Manson describes the encounter as very random and laid back.

4. The Purported Rape Scene in the "Heart-Shaped Glasses" Video

It has been established by a handful of witnesses who were on the set of the "Heart-Shaped Glasses" video shoot, which lasted three days, that Evan was not drugged and raped on set, as she "essentially" claims. However, there are a few things in Phoenix Rising which are very odd:

A. Amy Berg in an interview promoting Phoenix Rising and in the documentary itself, the idea that seems to be promoted is that the drugged and rape scene took place not during the passionate sex scene at the beginning of the video, which has been established to be a simulated sex scene, but they seem to argue it was the scene at the end where the blood pours down on Manson and Evan. However, anyone with eyes can see that there is no sex scene in that blood scene; in fact, both Manson and Evan are clothed, with Manson wearing pants the whole time. Yet, according to Evan, Manson penetrated her against her will. This however contradicts her statement that she was too drugged to know what was going on and do anything about it, but when she describes everything in the documentary Evan seems to have a very clear memory of everything that happened. So was she drugged and raped, while aware of all the details that took place, or wasn't she? The accusation is utterly absurd, if you really think about.

Furthermore, I spoke with Vanessa Alexandra, Manson's friend who was in the music video, who appeared on set the first two days, and she told me that the blood scene was filmed on the same day as the earlier simulated sex scene, which was Day Two. While she saw the entire simulated sex scene, she left right before they filmed the blood scene, and according to her testimony Evan was not drugged that day, nor any time while the filming took place that she saw. This is not to say Evan didn't do any drugs or drink any absinthe, which she likely did consume of her own free will as was her daily habit, but she was not out of it to the point where things were done to her without her consent.

It should be clarified as well that the blood scene required Evan to shut her eyes, giving the appearance of her not being awake, because her head is veered directly up towards Manson while blood rain is being poured on her. It would literally be impossible to look up at normal rain with your eyes open, let alone water with red dye. Plus, the scene does require her to be the object of a tragedy, so she has to appear somewhat out it. This scene was directly influenced by the Claire Denis film Trouble Every Day, a favorite film of Manson that had a strong influence on the album and imagery of Eat me, Drink Me. In the film, Shane (Vincent Gallo) was once obsessed and in love with Coré (Béatrice Dalle), who both took on a vampyric bloodlust after a science experiment gone wrong. Both become married to other people who tolerate this, but Coré needs to be confined by her doctor husband cause every day she breaks free and kills someone, while Shane is a bit more controlled and is seeking to be healed. During one scene, Coré seduces a young man, they begin to have sex, but she violently bites him to death, ripping out his tongue with her teeth. When Shane arrives at the house, he discovers Coré covered in blood. She tries to bite him, but Shane is able to overpower her. As he strangles her, she drops a match, setting the house on fire, which consumes her. It is this scene that influenced the raining blood scene.

Even in interviews from the time, Evan admits that they just kissed during the blood scene: "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." When she is asked in that interview to expound on it being romantic, she adds: "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 she goes on to distinguish this scene, where they are only kissing and holding each other, from the simulated sex scene, of which she says: "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...."

B. Evan's mother Sara says the following in Phoenix Rising about the video:

"My ex-husband was on a shoot the next day, and somebody on the shoot said to him, 'O my God, I was on the weirdest shoot last night.' And, it was the video. And he told him that the girl was out of it, that he was giving her absinthe and whatever else, and he was having her do things that were not in the script, not part of the schedule, they are just things he decides what he wants to do, when she cannot consent."

This is where the mystery begins. If you look up Evan's mom, Sara Lynn Moore, online, you will find that she has been married twice: first to Ira David Wood III, Evan's father, and then in 2003 she married her current husband Philip Elins. Yet here she is talking about her ex-husband. Who could this be? In fact, later in Phoenix Rising, Sara says that in 2010 she got a divorce at that time because of her trying to attend to the needs of Evan for what Manson did to her. Was Sara married three times? But she married her current husband, who is an assistant director, in 2003. She divorced Ira David Wood in 1996, and he lived in North Carolina in 2007.

Sara is a very sketchy figure in the documentary. Nothing she says sounds authentic, and in fact she outright lies in many instances. This description that Sara received from her purported and mysterious ex-husband in 2007 that divorced her in 2010 because of Manson, sounds completely fabricated to me and I can't treat it with any seriousness. Nothing sounds authentic about it to allow me to give it any serious thought. Before I begin to even try to take it serious, I will have to be convinced this purported ex-husband of hers even existed.

5. Evan Being Over Dramatic ... Again

One of the main reasons I believe Evan lies about being raped on the set of "Heart-Shaped Glasses", is because this was the only time she was employed by Manson, and even though she was paid, this is the only way she could twist the law in such a way as to accuse him of being a human trafficker and she was his victim. Of course, there are other reasons too, such as the media coverage of it at the time, and Manson joking around at the time with reporters wondering if the sex was real, which came to a point that a rep for Manson put out an official statement stating that the sex scene was simulated. However, there may have been something else going on.

In 2014, Evan Rachel Wood put forward a series of tweets about a famous 2003 Vanity Fair cover shoot she took part in with other famous teen girls when she was 15. The tweets were as follows:

When you read this, and other tweets Evan has made, you can see that she is an over dramatic person that is hard to take serious. I won't argue that the photo shoot wasn't hard for her that day, but her conclusions just don't match what she describes. Plus, I think most ambitious young girls would have welcomed what she went through, and it just seems like she is speaking from hindsight, even if the set was unprofessional. But these tweets were written in 2014, seven years after she shot "Heart-Shaped Glasses", but in 2014 she said, "Since then, I have found my voice. Never again." If she found her voice and this never happened again since 2003, then what is she talking about in Phoenix Rising, where she tries to describe something much worse. Either Evan lied in 2014, or she lied in Phoenix Rising.

Also, perhaps Evan was projecting her feelings from 2003 on the set of the photo shoot for Vanity Fair onto her allegations against Marilyn Manson with the "Heart-Shaped Glasses" video. I think this is a valid theory with a strong possibility. An old outrage set in a different time and setting to make it relevant again.

I also want to add, in Evan's interview with Rolling Stone in November 2006, the same interview where she describes being raped and abused by two men, she was asked about her sex scene in "Heart-Shaped Glasses", and in the interview she repeats what she had said for years prior, that the sex scene in the video was not real but simulated.

Part Two
 
 

Search