...continued from part one. II. PART ONE (A) In the first of three episodes for the docuseries Marilyn Manson: Unmasked , we are introduced to Marilyn Manson in a shocking way from the very beginning. I'm not sure the origins of the video clip, as I've never seen it before, but it is around 1995 and it shows him wearing an Adam Ant t-shirt with red lipstick smeared around the area of his mouth as he is being interviewed in a fairly crowded room of bandmates and groupies, while he randomly lights a fire in the middle of the floor. The first words spoken by Manson are the following: "Marilyn Manson is about transcending morality and sexuality; no boundaries, grey area - that's us." As he says this, two women are standing in front of him making out with each other. When he is asked: "Any accessories?" he replies: "Accessories? These two girls are accessories," pointing towards the two girls getting it on with each other who are now behind him. The...
On November 26th 2024 it was announced by Rolling Stone that Marilyn Manson dropped his lawsuit against Evan Rachel Wood, which he filed in March 2022. It has been two weeks since then and the court documents for this have not been made public, which means the multiple media sources who reported having the court documents two weeks ago received it most likely from Evan and her attorneys in an attempt to control the media narrative on this story. Seeing that Rolling Stone was first to report on it likely confirms this, seeing that Rolling Stone has been Evan's primary media spokesperson since this all began in 2021 and has solely reported the news of this case from her perspective. Because Rolling Stone cannot be considered a reliable source of information on this subject, nor any other media source, I cannot report yet on the complete accuracy of the reports made public through second-hand sources which are biased against Manson.
For example, it is being widely reported that Manson either settled or was ordered to pay Evan over $300,000, however we know that this has nothing to do with a settlement between Manson and Evan and that Evan will receive none of this money. This money in fact is in reference to a ruling from January 2024. On July 7th 2023, it was revealed that Evan was seeking compensation from Manson to pay her six figure attorney fees, since he lost the Anti-SLAPP that covered the defamation portion of the case, which wasn't surprising since California makes it almost impossible to sue a public figure for defamation. According to court documents, Evan asked the court to award her $346,470 to reimburse her attorney fees, plus another $9,193 in costs, another $22k for preparing the then current motion and another $10k she expected to spend in the future. The grand total came to $387,813.67. However, when the hearing concerning the legal fees for Evan took place on January 26th 2024, it was ruled that Evan's fees were to be reduced to $326,956 after Manson succeeded in getting it reduced more than $60,000. The payment for this was to be delayed, since Manson planned on appealing the decision on the Anti-SLAPP, however because the case has now been dropped Evan can receive the attorney fees she was rewarded in January as a result.
Since the media didn't report this one fact accurately, how can we trust anything else they say? This is why until the court filing on this ruling goes public so we can read it for ourselves instead of biased sources like Rolling Stone telling us what to think of it, I cannot report on those details at this time.
It is important to consider the facts however regarding what brought on the surprising news that Manson dropped his lawsuit against Evan. Of course, many Manson supporters were disappointed who wanted Evan to be held accountable for her false allegations and for Manson to get justice for all he went through because of her. Meanwhile, the media and supporters of Evan were falsely proclaiming this a victory on her part, despite the fact that we don't even know what the court filing says yet and that the case was dropped while the claims were still pending. They think Evan got the justice she sought, which is ridiculous and nothing even remotely suggests this. The fact of the matter is that Marilyn Manson dropping his case against Evan Rachel Wood was precisely the right thing to do for himself and for his fans. Here are some of the reasons I think why:
1. Marilyn Manson already won and got what he needed, not in the legal sense of course since there are no winners in that sense and the claims are still pending, but it was certainly a personal win for him. As Manson's attorney Howard King stated to Rolling Stone regarding him dropping the case: "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.” To keep dragging the case through an appeal process and then civil court would take at least another two more years, which means it would cost Manson a lot of stress, time and money for something he was dragged into by Evan. For what? So Manson can get justice? No, Manson never really sought justice in and of itself, though I'm sure he ideally would like justice. As he stated in his original complaint in March 2022, Manson brought a lawsuit against Evan because she and a bunch of other women derailed his successful career by perpetrating a hoax against him for their own personal reasons, which has been reported on this website and will continue to be reported though it was alluded to also in the complaint. Essentially Manson wanted justice as a path to restoring his career, while at the same time he wanted his side of the story told without having to go through a biased source. However, now that Manson has been signed to a new label with Nuclear Blast Records, has put out four music videos in the past few months, released part one of a two-part album that is one of the best in his career, ended a successful summer tour where he sounds and looks great, and has sold out an upcoming European tour, while getting signed up for multiple festivals, what else could he want? Marilyn Manson has his career back, most people seem to support him, while Evan and the hoax she perpetrated has been exposed, and cancel culture is hopefully dying out. For Manson to continue to drag the lawsuit while all this and more is going on for another two long years at least will be a major burden and hassle that will affect his comeback in a negative way. There is no positive outcome for Manson to continue with the lawsuit, whether he won in the end or not. Let alone the fact that the judge on the case was already showing signs of bias and laziness, complaining to Manson's lawyers that they are making her read too much while she is at the same time disposing of some of Manson's evidence without even giving it any consideration. Manson already won and he knows it and he doesn't need a court case anymore to help him, so he is pleased with the outcome and moved on to better and bigger things.
2. Now that Manson has his career back and gained mostly everything he wanted that he thought only a lawsuit could provide, why would he continue to want to be associated with Evan? The media refused to report on the release of Manson's new album, but every media source in the world jumped on the story of him dropping his lawsuit. Evan is a narcissist and the real abuser who has been clinging to Manson for years for her own gain and to feed her obsession with him, and this has taken a major toll on Manson. When Manson in 2015 called Evan a major mistake he made in his life, I'm sure he said those words with a lot of pain for what he already had went through with her, and a lot of that has never been reported, and this became more evident when Evan started coming out with accusations in 2016. I wouldn't be surprised if Manson feels that by continuing the lawsuit, he is only feeding Evan's narcissism and obsession and putting a hold on his own life, not knowing what crazy thing she will come up with next to drag his name through the mud at her own whim. Evan has already stated in a recent interview that she plans to talk about Manson for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, Manson shows all the signs that he wants to move on and the sooner he can get Evan out of his life the better.
3. Dropping his civil lawsuit against Evan allows Manson to concentrate on the most significant matter in all this, which is the criminal investigation by the LASD, the results of which will determine if the LADA will charge Manson to face a criminal trial. His other lawsuits, current and past, were and are all civil lawsuits, but Manson's accusers have said they are determined to see him rot in prison and the only way that can happen is if there is a criminal trial. Though the LASD had already presented their findings to the LADA in 2022, District Attorney George Gascon returned the findings and called them "partial" because he was for some odd reason expecting more evidence to come in, but the fact that a few more years passed with nothing new indicates something else going on behind the scenes. Recently Esme Bianco brought new attention to the criminal investigation by renouncing Gascon and endorsing the now victorious new District Attorney Nathan Hochman, which unfortunately deepened the politicization of the Manson investigation and possibly tainting it by her giving him a political favor and no doubt hoping for one in return. When Esme came forward at the last minute before the election to endorse Hochman, who was already projected to win by a landslide, Gascon at the same time reported finding the supposed new evidence he had waited for since 2022, though now we know he likely only said this to counter Esme's endorsement and accusation that Gascon was delaying the investigation. Whether Nathan Hochman will be fair or not will be determined, but if Manson ends up not being charged despite all the cards being stacked against him politically then it will be the only victory he needs to show there is no evidence against him that is worth going to trial over, however if he is charged then no doubt it is something Manson will want to devote all his resources towards, and if he had to worry about at the same time his civil lawsuit against Evan and Illma Gore then it would only double the burden and cause an extraordinary strain in all his resources, especially financial ones. We expect the results of the investigation soon under the new District Attorney.
4. To add to the previous, it cannot be overlooked that Manson still has two lawsuits against him from Ashley Walters and Bianca Allaine Kyne. I believe Walters is just looking for a settlement at this point, but Bianca may be crazy enough and deceived enough by her shady lawyer Jeff Anderson to take this all the way, and if this is the case then Manson may be aware of this and will want to focus his resources on this case as well, since it is the only one where Manson is actually accused of being a pedophile, though thankfully it has been ruled that the part about being a pedophile has been dropped by the court and this severely damages Bianca's case.
5. One major aspect of Manson's lawsuit issued in 2022 against Evan are the parts about Evan's former girlfriend and collaborator in the hoax against him, Illma Gore. In fact, the majority of the lawsuit concentrates on her actions against Manson. Manson has also dropped the lawsuit against Illma, but no media source has reported on it. I believe another reason Manson dropped his lawsuit against Evan and Illma was because of Illma's twin sister and rival, Bryton Gore. Bryton Gore gave Manson some key evidence to help his case that had been saved on an iPad that Illma had given Bryton and never deleted the files from. Much of this evidence helps to show that Evan and Illma perpetrated a hoax against Manson, with portions already having been made public in Manson's complaint. However, for over a year now Bryton has caused Manson and especially his wife Lindsay a lot of major grief due to relentless harassment and false accusations against Lindsay that are completely baseless. Bryton still supports Manson's case against Evan and her sister, but her issues with Illma are also personal and go back many years and they have gone to court against each other, which wreaked havoc in Bryton's life. Because of this Bryton has come to a point where she doesn't want her issues with her sister to be overshadowed by what Illma did to Manson. It has become more and more clear that Bryton also used Manson to get revenge on her sister through his lawsuit, and after over a year now of relentless harassment from Bryton against Manson and Lindsay based on her obsession with them, among other things, Manson and Lindsay seem to no longer want to be a part of Bryton's revenge issues against her sister Illma. That's not to say that what Illma is accused of by Manson in his complaint is not true, since Illma was indeed Evan's co-conspirator in the hoax and did commit crimes such as swatting Manson and Lindsay at their home and helping to forge an FBI letter, but just like with Evan, Manson may not want to be associated in any way with Bryton anymore and feed her narcissism and obsession with him.
6. Apparently when Evan and her team distributed the court documents to Rolling Stone and other media sources, she sent along with them statements from her lawyers to set up the narrative for how to interpret the documents and report on it. According to Evan's lawyers, Manson wanted to keep the terms of the settlement confidential, pay only a portion of her attorney fees, and offer a mutually agreed upon statement, but Evan they say rejected these terms and didn't want any confidentiality, which led to Manson dropping the lawsuit and paying the full lawyer's fees. They also accused Manson of issuing his lawsuit as a publicity stunt to undermine Evan's credibility and silence and intimidate her. Of course, all this is complete bullshit, but it does show how Evan has manipulated the media this whole time by always trying to make chess moves five steps ahead to control the narrative and make Manson look like the bad guy if he responds. The truth of the matter is that Evan has tried to silence Manson for years, she never wanted him to be allowed to defend himself against false accusations, and she demanded that everyone think like her or else you stand just as guilty as Manson for what she accused him of. Now she is also through this lawyer statement trying to present herself as a strong woman who once again defied Manson. The fact that Evan wants to show Manson was trying to put a gag order on her is only an attempt for her trying to show that this was all about silencing Evan. The more likely scenario is that it was Manson who wanted the freedom to further give his side of the story and present his evidence against Evan if he chooses in the future. Just by the fact that Manson agreed to drop the lawsuit with no gag order shows that silencing Evan was never his goal, otherwise he may not have dropped the lawsuit. But keep in mind, Evan is only giving her side of the story, as usual, so I'm sure Manson will one day also give his side.
Conclusion:
Everything stated above is my personal educated opinion on the possible reasons for why Manson dropped the lawsuit and why he was so pleased to do so. Manson perhaps has more reasons in addition to these, but that is for him to talk about when he is ready. The only thing I know for certain is that Manson didn't drop the lawsuit because he was scared or didn't have enough evidence, as is being reported. The best way for Manson to find justice for all he has been through over the past four years is to show that he cannot be stopped and that he has emerged from the situation a better man. Evan, on the other hand, has come to a point where she lost the majority custody of her son due to her obsession with Manson and her resulting abusive behavior towards her son by filling him with paranoia and anxiety while isolating him from his father, Jaime Bell. There are no signs that Evan is doing well in her life, and appears to be more miserable than she was before based on her Instagram posts. And though Manson's troubles are still far from over, though hopefully not too far, he is clearly emerging as the winner in all this. The toxic people from his past are being put behind him. The people that support Evan would continue to support Evan even if the results of any court case show in his favor, and he has more public support than she does. Though it may suck for it to be publicly reported by miserable and uninformed people that Manson dropping his lawsuit is a negative thing, the reality of the situation shows it is very much a positive thing for him, his wife and for his fans as well.
For example, it is being widely reported that Manson either settled or was ordered to pay Evan over $300,000, however we know that this has nothing to do with a settlement between Manson and Evan and that Evan will receive none of this money. This money in fact is in reference to a ruling from January 2024. On July 7th 2023, it was revealed that Evan was seeking compensation from Manson to pay her six figure attorney fees, since he lost the Anti-SLAPP that covered the defamation portion of the case, which wasn't surprising since California makes it almost impossible to sue a public figure for defamation. According to court documents, Evan asked the court to award her $346,470 to reimburse her attorney fees, plus another $9,193 in costs, another $22k for preparing the then current motion and another $10k she expected to spend in the future. The grand total came to $387,813.67. However, when the hearing concerning the legal fees for Evan took place on January 26th 2024, it was ruled that Evan's fees were to be reduced to $326,956 after Manson succeeded in getting it reduced more than $60,000. The payment for this was to be delayed, since Manson planned on appealing the decision on the Anti-SLAPP, however because the case has now been dropped Evan can receive the attorney fees she was rewarded in January as a result.
Since the media didn't report this one fact accurately, how can we trust anything else they say? This is why until the court filing on this ruling goes public so we can read it for ourselves instead of biased sources like Rolling Stone telling us what to think of it, I cannot report on those details at this time.
It is important to consider the facts however regarding what brought on the surprising news that Manson dropped his lawsuit against Evan. Of course, many Manson supporters were disappointed who wanted Evan to be held accountable for her false allegations and for Manson to get justice for all he went through because of her. Meanwhile, the media and supporters of Evan were falsely proclaiming this a victory on her part, despite the fact that we don't even know what the court filing says yet and that the case was dropped while the claims were still pending. They think Evan got the justice she sought, which is ridiculous and nothing even remotely suggests this. The fact of the matter is that Marilyn Manson dropping his case against Evan Rachel Wood was precisely the right thing to do for himself and for his fans. Here are some of the reasons I think why:
1. Marilyn Manson already won and got what he needed, not in the legal sense of course since there are no winners in that sense and the claims are still pending, but it was certainly a personal win for him. As Manson's attorney Howard King stated to Rolling Stone regarding him dropping the case: "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.” To keep dragging the case through an appeal process and then civil court would take at least another two more years, which means it would cost Manson a lot of stress, time and money for something he was dragged into by Evan. For what? So Manson can get justice? No, Manson never really sought justice in and of itself, though I'm sure he ideally would like justice. As he stated in his original complaint in March 2022, Manson brought a lawsuit against Evan because she and a bunch of other women derailed his successful career by perpetrating a hoax against him for their own personal reasons, which has been reported on this website and will continue to be reported though it was alluded to also in the complaint. Essentially Manson wanted justice as a path to restoring his career, while at the same time he wanted his side of the story told without having to go through a biased source. However, now that Manson has been signed to a new label with Nuclear Blast Records, has put out four music videos in the past few months, released part one of a two-part album that is one of the best in his career, ended a successful summer tour where he sounds and looks great, and has sold out an upcoming European tour, while getting signed up for multiple festivals, what else could he want? Marilyn Manson has his career back, most people seem to support him, while Evan and the hoax she perpetrated has been exposed, and cancel culture is hopefully dying out. For Manson to continue to drag the lawsuit while all this and more is going on for another two long years at least will be a major burden and hassle that will affect his comeback in a negative way. There is no positive outcome for Manson to continue with the lawsuit, whether he won in the end or not. Let alone the fact that the judge on the case was already showing signs of bias and laziness, complaining to Manson's lawyers that they are making her read too much while she is at the same time disposing of some of Manson's evidence without even giving it any consideration. Manson already won and he knows it and he doesn't need a court case anymore to help him, so he is pleased with the outcome and moved on to better and bigger things.
2. Now that Manson has his career back and gained mostly everything he wanted that he thought only a lawsuit could provide, why would he continue to want to be associated with Evan? The media refused to report on the release of Manson's new album, but every media source in the world jumped on the story of him dropping his lawsuit. Evan is a narcissist and the real abuser who has been clinging to Manson for years for her own gain and to feed her obsession with him, and this has taken a major toll on Manson. When Manson in 2015 called Evan a major mistake he made in his life, I'm sure he said those words with a lot of pain for what he already had went through with her, and a lot of that has never been reported, and this became more evident when Evan started coming out with accusations in 2016. I wouldn't be surprised if Manson feels that by continuing the lawsuit, he is only feeding Evan's narcissism and obsession and putting a hold on his own life, not knowing what crazy thing she will come up with next to drag his name through the mud at her own whim. Evan has already stated in a recent interview that she plans to talk about Manson for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, Manson shows all the signs that he wants to move on and the sooner he can get Evan out of his life the better.
3. Dropping his civil lawsuit against Evan allows Manson to concentrate on the most significant matter in all this, which is the criminal investigation by the LASD, the results of which will determine if the LADA will charge Manson to face a criminal trial. His other lawsuits, current and past, were and are all civil lawsuits, but Manson's accusers have said they are determined to see him rot in prison and the only way that can happen is if there is a criminal trial. Though the LASD had already presented their findings to the LADA in 2022, District Attorney George Gascon returned the findings and called them "partial" because he was for some odd reason expecting more evidence to come in, but the fact that a few more years passed with nothing new indicates something else going on behind the scenes. Recently Esme Bianco brought new attention to the criminal investigation by renouncing Gascon and endorsing the now victorious new District Attorney Nathan Hochman, which unfortunately deepened the politicization of the Manson investigation and possibly tainting it by her giving him a political favor and no doubt hoping for one in return. When Esme came forward at the last minute before the election to endorse Hochman, who was already projected to win by a landslide, Gascon at the same time reported finding the supposed new evidence he had waited for since 2022, though now we know he likely only said this to counter Esme's endorsement and accusation that Gascon was delaying the investigation. Whether Nathan Hochman will be fair or not will be determined, but if Manson ends up not being charged despite all the cards being stacked against him politically then it will be the only victory he needs to show there is no evidence against him that is worth going to trial over, however if he is charged then no doubt it is something Manson will want to devote all his resources towards, and if he had to worry about at the same time his civil lawsuit against Evan and Illma Gore then it would only double the burden and cause an extraordinary strain in all his resources, especially financial ones. We expect the results of the investigation soon under the new District Attorney.
4. To add to the previous, it cannot be overlooked that Manson still has two lawsuits against him from Ashley Walters and Bianca Allaine Kyne. I believe Walters is just looking for a settlement at this point, but Bianca may be crazy enough and deceived enough by her shady lawyer Jeff Anderson to take this all the way, and if this is the case then Manson may be aware of this and will want to focus his resources on this case as well, since it is the only one where Manson is actually accused of being a pedophile, though thankfully it has been ruled that the part about being a pedophile has been dropped by the court and this severely damages Bianca's case.
5. One major aspect of Manson's lawsuit issued in 2022 against Evan are the parts about Evan's former girlfriend and collaborator in the hoax against him, Illma Gore. In fact, the majority of the lawsuit concentrates on her actions against Manson. Manson has also dropped the lawsuit against Illma, but no media source has reported on it. I believe another reason Manson dropped his lawsuit against Evan and Illma was because of Illma's twin sister and rival, Bryton Gore. Bryton Gore gave Manson some key evidence to help his case that had been saved on an iPad that Illma had given Bryton and never deleted the files from. Much of this evidence helps to show that Evan and Illma perpetrated a hoax against Manson, with portions already having been made public in Manson's complaint. However, for over a year now Bryton has caused Manson and especially his wife Lindsay a lot of major grief due to relentless harassment and false accusations against Lindsay that are completely baseless. Bryton still supports Manson's case against Evan and her sister, but her issues with Illma are also personal and go back many years and they have gone to court against each other, which wreaked havoc in Bryton's life. Because of this Bryton has come to a point where she doesn't want her issues with her sister to be overshadowed by what Illma did to Manson. It has become more and more clear that Bryton also used Manson to get revenge on her sister through his lawsuit, and after over a year now of relentless harassment from Bryton against Manson and Lindsay based on her obsession with them, among other things, Manson and Lindsay seem to no longer want to be a part of Bryton's revenge issues against her sister Illma. That's not to say that what Illma is accused of by Manson in his complaint is not true, since Illma was indeed Evan's co-conspirator in the hoax and did commit crimes such as swatting Manson and Lindsay at their home and helping to forge an FBI letter, but just like with Evan, Manson may not want to be associated in any way with Bryton anymore and feed her narcissism and obsession with him.
6. Apparently when Evan and her team distributed the court documents to Rolling Stone and other media sources, she sent along with them statements from her lawyers to set up the narrative for how to interpret the documents and report on it. According to Evan's lawyers, Manson wanted to keep the terms of the settlement confidential, pay only a portion of her attorney fees, and offer a mutually agreed upon statement, but Evan they say rejected these terms and didn't want any confidentiality, which led to Manson dropping the lawsuit and paying the full lawyer's fees. They also accused Manson of issuing his lawsuit as a publicity stunt to undermine Evan's credibility and silence and intimidate her. Of course, all this is complete bullshit, but it does show how Evan has manipulated the media this whole time by always trying to make chess moves five steps ahead to control the narrative and make Manson look like the bad guy if he responds. The truth of the matter is that Evan has tried to silence Manson for years, she never wanted him to be allowed to defend himself against false accusations, and she demanded that everyone think like her or else you stand just as guilty as Manson for what she accused him of. Now she is also through this lawyer statement trying to present herself as a strong woman who once again defied Manson. The fact that Evan wants to show Manson was trying to put a gag order on her is only an attempt for her trying to show that this was all about silencing Evan. The more likely scenario is that it was Manson who wanted the freedom to further give his side of the story and present his evidence against Evan if he chooses in the future. Just by the fact that Manson agreed to drop the lawsuit with no gag order shows that silencing Evan was never his goal, otherwise he may not have dropped the lawsuit. But keep in mind, Evan is only giving her side of the story, as usual, so I'm sure Manson will one day also give his side.
Conclusion:
Everything stated above is my personal educated opinion on the possible reasons for why Manson dropped the lawsuit and why he was so pleased to do so. Manson perhaps has more reasons in addition to these, but that is for him to talk about when he is ready. The only thing I know for certain is that Manson didn't drop the lawsuit because he was scared or didn't have enough evidence, as is being reported. The best way for Manson to find justice for all he has been through over the past four years is to show that he cannot be stopped and that he has emerged from the situation a better man. Evan, on the other hand, has come to a point where she lost the majority custody of her son due to her obsession with Manson and her resulting abusive behavior towards her son by filling him with paranoia and anxiety while isolating him from his father, Jaime Bell. There are no signs that Evan is doing well in her life, and appears to be more miserable than she was before based on her Instagram posts. And though Manson's troubles are still far from over, though hopefully not too far, he is clearly emerging as the winner in all this. The toxic people from his past are being put behind him. The people that support Evan would continue to support Evan even if the results of any court case show in his favor, and he has more public support than she does. Though it may suck for it to be publicly reported by miserable and uninformed people that Manson dropping his lawsuit is a negative thing, the reality of the situation shows it is very much a positive thing for him, his wife and for his fans as well.