On December 16th 2025, it was announced that the case of Ashley Walters (ex-assistant) brought against her former employer Marilyn Manson (Brian Warner) through her second amended complaint on March 11th 2022, has been dismissed without prejudice. This is because on September 19th 2025, Marilyn Manson and Marilyn Manson Records, Inc. filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, and this Motion was granted on December 16th. Hence the jury trial which was scheduled for the 26th of January will no longer take place. According to court documents, the Motion for Summary Judgment was granted for three reasons: 1. “There is no triable issue of material fact.” The court is saying: Even if we look at the evidence most favorably to the plaintiff, there is nothing a jury needs to decide because the key facts are either undisputed or legally irrelevant. Meaning: The dispute is purely legal, not factual — and the law favors the defendants. 2. “Plaintiff’s claims are time barred.” The court is saying:...
In a developing story, Rolling Stone reported about an hour ago that Marilyn Manson dropped his lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood. According to the article, he has agreed to pay nearly $327,000 in Evan’s attorneys’ fees.
The article refers to a statement issued by Evan's attorneys (Michael Kump, Shawn Holley and Katherine Kleindienst of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP) which Rolling Stone summarizes as follows:
"Brian Warner had sought to settle the lawsuit this past spring at the same time he was appealing a judge’s rulings against him. His initial offer was to pay a portion of Wood’s fees in return for keeping the settlement confidential, other than releasing a mutually agreed-upon statement. Wood rejected this offer. Her lawyers say she did not want to agree to confidentiality or the other terms. Warner subsequently agreed to drop his suit against Wood completely and pay her full lawyers’ fees."
A rep for Evan Rachel Wood stated:
"Marilyn Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — filed a lawsuit against Ms. Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career. But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms. Wood failed. As the trial court correctly found, Warner’s claims were meritless. Warner’s decision to finally abandon his lawsuit and pay Ms. Wood her full fee award of almost $327,000 only confirms as much.”
Manson's attorney, Howard King, stated:
"After four years of fighting a battle where he was able to tell the truth, Brian is pleased to dismiss his still-pending claims and appeal in order to close the door on this chapter of his life."
Here are my initial thoughts on this:
1. The court documents for this settlement have not been made public, which means that Evan leaked the documents to Rolling Stone and the author Kory Grow. Upon the initial publication, Howard King's statement was not included, and it took them about an hour after publication to get the statement and include it in the article. Rolling Stone clearly wanted to get this out as soon as possible and didn't want to wait for a statement from Howard King. Rolling Stone has been an ally to Evan since the beginning, from its so-called "investigation" in 2021 to their recent failed docuseries only available in a few countries outside the United States. Evan has allowed Rolling Stone to be her spokesperson, and Rolling Stone has gladly fulfilled her wishes. As soon as Rolling Stone published the article, Evan restored her Instagram account which she deactivated a few days ago and posted the article in her stories.
2. Because the documents are not publicly available, we cannot confirm any of this information until they are released. Most likely, Rolling Stone is not telling us the whole story. This is a very one-sided article. Until the documents are released, I can't comment on the details of the settlement.
3. This is a positive for Manson. I will talk more about this later, but based on this article, there are no confidentiality agreements or terms, which means Manson can speak as he pleases and reveal his side of the story without any gag order, and I'm confident he intends to do just that. Funny how Evan's team makes it sound like this is what they wanted. Furthermore, Manson paying Evan's lawyer's fees to drop this case is probably more of a financial savings for him if this trial was to last another two years while Manson is trying to get his career going again.
4. Again, I don't want to say more till we know the rest of this story, but believe me, this is more of a positive for Manson than it is for Evan. Especially at a time when Manson has yet to speak except through his lawyer, and Evan has already exhausted what she has had to say, which has only worked against her. But the best part of this story is that Manson is free to focus more on his upcoming concerts and music/video releases.
The article refers to a statement issued by Evan's attorneys (Michael Kump, Shawn Holley and Katherine Kleindienst of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP) which Rolling Stone summarizes as follows:
"Brian Warner had sought to settle the lawsuit this past spring at the same time he was appealing a judge’s rulings against him. His initial offer was to pay a portion of Wood’s fees in return for keeping the settlement confidential, other than releasing a mutually agreed-upon statement. Wood rejected this offer. Her lawyers say she did not want to agree to confidentiality or the other terms. Warner subsequently agreed to drop his suit against Wood completely and pay her full lawyers’ fees."
A rep for Evan Rachel Wood stated:
"Marilyn Manson — whose real name is Brian Warner — filed a lawsuit against Ms. Wood as a publicity stunt to try to undermine the credibility of his many accusers and revive his faltering career. But his attempt to silence and intimidate Ms. Wood failed. As the trial court correctly found, Warner’s claims were meritless. Warner’s decision to finally abandon his lawsuit and pay Ms. Wood her full fee award of almost $327,000 only confirms as much.”
Manson's attorney, Howard King, stated:
"After four years of fighting a battle where he was able to tell the truth, Brian is pleased to dismiss his still-pending claims and appeal in order to close the door on this chapter of his life."
Here are my initial thoughts on this:
1. The court documents for this settlement have not been made public, which means that Evan leaked the documents to Rolling Stone and the author Kory Grow. Upon the initial publication, Howard King's statement was not included, and it took them about an hour after publication to get the statement and include it in the article. Rolling Stone clearly wanted to get this out as soon as possible and didn't want to wait for a statement from Howard King. Rolling Stone has been an ally to Evan since the beginning, from its so-called "investigation" in 2021 to their recent failed docuseries only available in a few countries outside the United States. Evan has allowed Rolling Stone to be her spokesperson, and Rolling Stone has gladly fulfilled her wishes. As soon as Rolling Stone published the article, Evan restored her Instagram account which she deactivated a few days ago and posted the article in her stories.
2. Because the documents are not publicly available, we cannot confirm any of this information until they are released. Most likely, Rolling Stone is not telling us the whole story. This is a very one-sided article. Until the documents are released, I can't comment on the details of the settlement.
3. This is a positive for Manson. I will talk more about this later, but based on this article, there are no confidentiality agreements or terms, which means Manson can speak as he pleases and reveal his side of the story without any gag order, and I'm confident he intends to do just that. Funny how Evan's team makes it sound like this is what they wanted. Furthermore, Manson paying Evan's lawyer's fees to drop this case is probably more of a financial savings for him if this trial was to last another two years while Manson is trying to get his career going again.
4. Again, I don't want to say more till we know the rest of this story, but believe me, this is more of a positive for Manson than it is for Evan. Especially at a time when Manson has yet to speak except through his lawyer, and Evan has already exhausted what she has had to say, which has only worked against her. But the best part of this story is that Manson is free to focus more on his upcoming concerts and music/video releases.
5. The article doesn't even mention that there is a settlement with Illma Gore as well. It is so Evan focused that it doesn't even care about anything other than justifying their girl Evan and their pathetic investigations.