Judge Denies Dismissal in Actress’s Case Against CAA, Disney, and Weinstein

A New York Supreme Court judge has ruled against motions filed by talent agency CAA, Walt Disney Co., and Miramax to dismiss actress Julia Ormond’s lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein for sexual battery. The suit, originally filed last October, accuses CAA of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, and Disney and Miramax of negligent supervision and retention.

The court’s decision stated, “The complaint sufficiently alleges that CAA failed to protect plaintiff from Weinstein, failing to warn her of his alleged reputation while at the same time negotiating the production company agreement between the plaintiff and Miramax, and later arranging the dinner meeting between plaintiff and Weinstein.”

Ormond’s attorneys, Meredith A. Firetog and Kevin Mintzer, expressed satisfaction with the ruling. “We are very pleased by the Court’s decision, which is a complete repudiation of CAA, Disney, and Miramax’s attempts to evade accountability for their failure to protect Julia Ormond from Harvey Weinstein. The case will now proceed to discovery, where, thanks to Ms. Ormond’s bravery, we will be able to expose the truth of how these powerful Hollywood companies enabled Harvey Weinstein,” they said in a statement.

Representatives for CAA and Disney were not immediately available for comment.

Ormond, known for her roles in “Legends of the Fall” and the 1995 remake of “Sabrina,” alleged that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in December 1995 following a business dinner in New York City. This meeting was arranged to discuss a project. She further claims that after informing her agents Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, who are now CAA’s co-chairmen, they did nothing to help her and instead cautioned her against speaking out.

While Lourd and Huvane were not named as defendants in the suit, their involvement was referenced throughout the complaint. According to the lawsuit, “The men at CAA who represented Ormond knew about Weinstein. So too did Weinstein’s employers at Miramax and Disney. Brazenly, none of these prominent companies warned Ormond that Weinstein had a history of assaulting women because he was too important, too powerful, and made them too much money.”

The complaint states that Weinstein insisted on discussing the project at a Manhattan apartment provided by Miramax as part of Ormond’s two-year deal with the company. Once there, Ormond claims that despite her protests, Weinstein forced her into sexually compromising situations, including a massage, climbing on top of her, and forcing her to perform oral sex.

A few weeks after the alleged assault, Ormond was informed that Weinstein planned to visit her in Copenhagen while she was working on a film. Horrified, she reached out to her agents at CAA to prevent Weinstein’s visit, but according to the suit, they declined to intervene.

Ormond filed her lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act, enacted in New York in 2022. The act established a one-year “lookback” window for survivors of sexual assault that occurred when they were over the age of 18, regardless of when the incident took place.

Weinstein’s attorney, Imran H. Ansari, has categorically denied the allegations made by Julia Ormond and stated that Weinstein is prepared to vehemently defend himself. At the time of the filing, CAA called the claims baseless. “CAA takes all allegations of sexual assault and abuse seriously, and has compassion for Ms. Ormond and the experience she described in her complaint. However, the claims that Ms. Ormond has levied against the agency are completely without merit,” the agency said in a statement.

CAA disclosed that Ormond’s legal counsel approached them in March with the allegations. The agency then hired attorney Loretta Lynch and her law firm, Paul, Weiss, to review the claims. The firm’s investigation found nothing to support Ormond’s allegations against CAA. Additionally, Ormond’s attorneys had asked CAA to pay $15 million in exchange for her not making public allegations against the agency, which CAA rejected.

Last year, at the Bloomberg Screentime conference, Lourd said, “We were falsely accused of something that we did not do and we are going to address those accusations in court in a proper forum.”

In a separate case, a New York appellate court recently decided to overturn Weinstein’s rape conviction, stating that a state judge erred in allowing three women to testify at trial despite no charges being filed against Weinstein for their accusations. Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an extradition warrant seeking Weinstein’s transfer from New York to California, where he was previously convicted on rape charges.

Source: Los Angeles Times