Ashley Judd Files Lawsuit Against Harvey Weinstein For Damaging Her Career

Actress Ashley Judd has become the latest to file a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein.

Judd is accusing the producer of damaging her career after she turned down his sexual advances. According to Hollywood Reporter, Judd alleges sexual harassment and defamation. She says Weinstein “badmouthed her to filmmaker Peter Jackson and cost her a role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.”

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She explains that she was a contender for a major role in the adaption of the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, however Weinstein told Jackson that she was, “a ‘nightmare’ to work with and should be avoided ‘at all costs.’ ”

Judd released a statement saying that, “Mr. Weinstein’s abusive conduct toward others has caused no end of damage to aspiring actors and others in the film and entertainment industry. As my experience and the experience of others shows, even a few false statements from Mr. Weinstein could destroy potentially career-changing professional opportunities. It’s time that Mr. Weinstein be held accountable for that conduct and for the ways in which he’s damaged careers.”

Weinstein’s production company, Miramax, then held the rights to Lord of the Rings, has denied trying to hurt Judd’s career.

In the lawsuit, she explains her encounter with Weinstein in 1997. She went to the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where she was supposed to have a breakfast meeting with him. He then “appeared in a bathrobe [and] asked Judd to watch him shower and to let him massage her.”

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The lawsuit continued on to say, “Cornered, and desperate to escape without angering a man who had the ability to end her budding career, Ms. Judd engaged in a mock bargain with Weinstein, suggesting that she would consider letting him touch her only if she won an Academy Award in one of his films.”

She then fled the scene shortly after that.

Judd is seeking monetary damages and restitution. Her suit then concludes, “no person — in whatever job, in whatever industry — should have to forfeit professional aspirations and the right to earn a living to the abusive whims of the powerful. Ms. Judd brings this complaint to vindicate that principle, and to right the wrongs that Weinstein committed against her, among so many others.”