Ashley Judd Sues Harvey Weinstein for Attempting to Destroy Her Career

Ashley Judd is suing disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein for allegedly damaging her career by preventing her from getting multiple movie roles after she rebuffed his sexual advances.

Court documents obtained by CNN show that Judd is accusing Weinstein of making inflammatory statements about her that hurt her career, including deterring director Peter Jackson and his producing partner Fran Walsh from working with Judd on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The actress claims that Weinstein’s actions “torpedoed” her opportunity to star in the films and cost her other work as well.

“I lost career opportunity. I lost money. I lost status and prestige and power in my career as a direct result of having been sexually harassed and rebuffing the sexual harassment,” Judd told ABC News. “My career opportunities, after having been defamed by Harvey Weinstein, were significantly diminished. … My career was damaged because I rebuffed Mr. Weinstein’s sexual advances. I know it for a fact.”

Judd’s suit states that she met with Jackson and Walsh in or around 1998 to discuss two roles in the film, but the pair reportedly “dropped their pursuit” of her after hearing from Weinstein that the studio had “a bad experience” working with Judd.

“The pathetic reality, however, was that Weinstein was retaliating against Ms. Judd for rejecting his sexual demands approximately one year earlier when he cornered her in a hotel room under the guise of discussing business,” the suit reads.

A representative for Weinstein denied Judd’s allegations.

“The most basic investigation of the facts will reveal that Mr. Weinstein neither defamed Ms. Judd nor ever interfered with Ms. Judd’s career, and instead not only championed her work but also repeatedly approved her casting for two of his movies over the next decade,” read a statement from Weinstein’s attorney obtained by CNN.

In a New York Times exposé in October, Judd was one of the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment, with her story paving the way for others to come forward, with the growing list of allegations, which ranged from harassment to rape, eventually shattering Weinstein’s career.

In the article, Judd said that two decades ago, Weinstein had invited her to his hotel for what she assumed was a business meeting. Instead, she said, they spoke in his suite, where he asked her for a massage, a shoulder rub, to help her pick out his clothes and to watch him shower, all of which she refused.

Judd, who said she felt “panicky, trapped,” shared that to leave the room, she joked that if Weinstein wanted to touch her, she would have to win an Oscar in one of his films first.

Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.

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