Disney and CAA to withdraw from Julia Ormond’s 1995 sexual abuse lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein; “The blame lies with the wrong defendant,” Uberagency said

EXCLUSIVE: Two months after Julia Ormond sued the CAA, Disney and Harvey Weinstein for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, assault and more in connection with a 1995 sexual assault by the current inmate pulp fiction EP, the Uber agency and the company led by Bob Iger say they should not participate in the lawsuit and want out.

“If we accept the allegations in the complaint as true, Harvey Weinstein’s alleged misconduct is disturbing and deplorable,” Cravath, Swaine & Moore, the Walt Disney Company’s New York lawyers, said Tuesday of Ormond’s complaint. October 4th. “But the question is whether the plaintiff’s allegations are sufficient to support a claim of negligent supervision against TWDC,” Disney continued, referring to its ownership of Weinstein’s Miramax from 1993 to 2010.

“This is not the case in relation to any of the four elements of this case. Therefore, TWDC respectfully requests dismissal of the sole lawsuit against them.” (Read Disney’s motion to dismiss Weinstein case here).

Today’s claim and opinion from the House of Mouse is confirmed by the now Artémis-controlled CAA in its own filing with the New York Supreme Court on Tuesday.

“It is now common knowledge that Harvey Weinstein has committed multiple sexual crimes and that his deplorable conduct has had a devastating impact on many women,” reads a memorandum that CAA lawyers also filed in New York Supreme Court today. “However, prior to Plaintiff’s alleged assault by Weinstein in December 1995, the only time frame relevant to Plaintiff’s claims against Creative Artists Agency, LLC, CAA did not have this knowledge of Weinstein,” the filing states in a motion to dismiss Ormond’s to reject allegations. against CAA and allegations against his unnamed agents Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane (read CAA’s motion to dismiss the Weinstein case here).

“Therefore, the CAA had no reason to believe that there was any risk to the plaintiff in arranging a business lunch with Weinstein,” the filing states. “As Plaintiff admits in her lawsuit, she had a productive working relationship with Weinstein for a year before she even hired CAA, and Plaintiff had previously met Weinstein in person without incident. CAA deeply sympathizes with the plaintiff as one of the women who allegedly suffered at Weinstein’s hands. However, by suing CAA, the plaintiff shifts the blame to the wrong defendant.”

That’s her perspective, but Ormond says Weinstein forced himself on her for oral sex more than two decades ago and that both CAA and Disney were aware of the Oscar-winning producer’s predatory behavior and did nothing to protect her. “The men at CAA who represented Ormond knew about Weinstein,” the case details. “So are Weinstein’s employers at Miramax and Disney. Outrageously, none of these prominent companies warned Ormond that Weinstein had a history of attacking women because he was too important, too powerful, and made them too much money.

Both CAA and Disney clearly deny Ormond’s claims and it will continue in court for months, if not years. However, it is worth noting that the Grandin temple The actress also claims that agents Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane told her in the 1990s that the typical settlement amount in such Weinstein assault cases was about $100,000.

Not quite, CAA said today.

“Plaintiff never told Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane or CAA about the attack until she contacted the agency with a warning letter from her attorneys earlier this year,” the agency’s filing states.

“As we allege in the complaint, CAA, Disney and Miramax knew that Harvey Weinstein was a predator before he attacked Ms. Ormond, and they did nothing about it because Weinstein made them money,” Ormond’s statement said. lead attorney Doug Wigdor told Deadline on Tuesday. “Ms. Ormond will oppose these motions and we are confident that she will prevail.” Ormond sued Weinstein, CAA and Disney based on the Empire State’s statute of limitations, which violated the Adult Survivors Act.

The much-accused and convicted Weinstein (74) is currently in prison in Los Angeles after he was sentenced to 16 years in February for rape and other sex crimes. Justice on the West Coast came after Weinstein was sentenced by a Manhattan judge in March 2020 to 23 years in prison for other rapes and other sex crimes.

In mid-October, CAA co-chairman and CEO Lourd and Ari Emanuel got into a verbal spat after the Endeavor boss said Lourd and Huvane should resign while Ormond’s case was heard. “Seven different officers were aware of various incidents involving women. When they took over, they decided: ‘We’re going to look the other way.’ That’s why they were sued,” Emanuel said at an industry event on October 11.

The next day, at the same Bloomberg Screentime event, Lourd took the bait and fired back at Emanuel — which, as we’ve all seen before, was exactly what the Endeavor boss wanted.

“We all know Ari Emanuel as an incredibly performative, unpredictable and, in my opinion, selfish person. I think this hurts not only his colleagues, but also his customers, the few he has left, and more importantly, his investors. Lourd said to the affluent crowd. “

The idea that he can present himself as morally superior to everyone anyway, but especially when it comes to the challenges women face, is ironic that the companies he took his group to and the men he worked with and for whom he can act as his advisers. defend women’s issues,” Lourd continued. “But these are very serious issues, they are not meant for hypocritical judgments, so you won’t get that from me. “We have been falsely accused and we will deal with these allegations in court and in an appropriate forum.”