Game Of Thrones' Esmé Bianco sues Marilyn Manson for sexual assault
It’s been three months since allegations of sexual abuse against musician Marilyn Manson first began to pick up widespread attention, led by accusations from his former partner Evan Rachel Wood. Spurred on by Woods’ accounts of rape and other abuse at the hands of Manson (whose real name is Brian Warner), multiple other women soon came forward with similar stories, including actress Esmé Bianco, who gave a long account to The Cut detailing the frequently abusive nature of her relationship with Warner.
Now, TMZ reports, Bianco has sued both Warner and his former manager, Tony Ciulla, accusing Warner of rape and sexual battery. Ciulla and his management company, meanwhile, are accused of violating human trafficking laws, in relation to Bianco’s first major contact with Warner, in which she says she was hired to appear in a music video. Bianco traveled to the United States from London for the shoot—at which point she discovered that there was no film crew involved, that Manson had control over her visa to be in the country, and that she was expected to be in costume (i.e., lingerie) and on-call 24/7 during the “shoot”. (The video never came out; neither did a film Manson later claimed to be making with her.) All of these claims, which come from court docs acquired by TMZ, line up with details Bianco provided back in February, along with further allegations that her subsequent sexual relationship with Manson involved incidents of emotional and physical abuse, as well as at least one instance of rape.
Warner and his lawyers have issued a statement denying the allegations against him. “These claims are provably false,” Manson’s attorney, Howard King, told Rolling Stone. “To be clear, this suit was only filed after my client refused to be shaken down by Ms. Bianco and her lawyer and give in to their outrageous financial demands based on conduct that simply never occurred. We will vigorously contest these allegations in court and are confident that we will prevail.”
Bianco is best known for her role as Ros on Game Of Thrones. (Among other allegations, she’s said that Warner delighted in playing her sex scenes from the show to visitors to his home in an attempt to humiliate her.) She also partnered with Wood to co-create the Phoenix Act, which extends the statute of limitations in cases of domestic abuse.