Ashley Judd in no mood to settle with Harvey Weinstein, says she intends to take disgraced Hollywood producer to trial
Amid reports of Harvey Weinstein offering a settlement amounting to $44 million to some of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct, actor Ashley Judd has confirmed that she does not intend on settling the matter outside of court. On Thursday, reports of Weinstein offering the settlement was reported following which Judd took to Twitter to clarify that she was not a party to this settlement.
Judd tweeted, "My lawsuit against #harveyweinstein is ongoing and I intend to take him to trial. #metoo @MeTooMVMT." After which another tweet added, "Ashley Judd’s case against Harvey Weinstein is ongoing and we intend to bring it to trial. She is not a party of any settlement."
According to a report in the New York Times, the sum of settlement money right now is less than half of what was initially discussed as a victims’ fund. This was part of a deal that was discussed between an investor group that was interested in buying assets of the Weinstein Company and Eric T. Schneiderman, New York's attorney general at the time. This deal, however, fell through in the last minute but would have had a $90 million fund had the discussions took shape.
The report also quoted unnamed sources as saying that under the current proposal, about $30 million will be split between a pool of plaintiffs that includes alleged victims, creditors of Mr. Weinstein’s former studio and some former employees. The rest will be legal fees for associates of Weinstein, including board members named as defendants in lawsuits. It was also reported that the sum of $44 million will be covered by insurance policies if it is finalized.
Actor Judd was one of the first people to call out Weinstein for sexual misconduct and also alleged that he defamed her and schemed to ruin her career in Hollywood by passing the word around that she was 'hard to work with'. The actor filed the lawsuit in 2018 where an incident of Weinstein asking her to give a message just dressed in a bathrobe and asking her to watch him shower was also added.
In September 2018, a federal judge ruled that she may pursue her allegations that Weinstein blackballed her for allegedly turning him down but Judge Philip Gutierrez had dismissed Judd's sexual harassment claims stating that it would be unprecedented to apply the statute to a prospective employer.