Ashley Judd’s sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein have been dismissed in court.
The 50-year-old actress claimed she lost out on a part in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ after she rejected the shamed movie mogul’s sexual advances in a defamation lawsuit filed in April, and on Wednesday (09.01.19), the courts ruled in favour of Weinstein, as they dismissed her lawsuit.
According to TMZ, a federal judge ruled that Judd and Weinstein did not have a relationship that fell within the law, as the producer/actress relationship they had was not covered under the law.
Laws were changed to cover such relationships in 2018 following the increase in women coming forward to accuse Hollywood moguls of sexual misconduct, but the judge in this case claimed the change to the law could not be applied retroactively.
In July, a court heard how Weinstein argued the ‘Divergent’ star had "filed this action 20 years too late" as the alleged incident happened in 1998.
As well as not meeting the statute of limitations, his court documents also insisted the single incident was not "pervasive or severe" enough to amount to sexual harassment.
And in response to the documents, Judd and her team claimed at the time they were confident they could "oppose" the bid to have the case dismissed.
They said in a statement: "Mr. Weinstein’s arguments seeking to escape the consequences of his despicable misconduct are not only baseless, they are offensive.
"We look forward to opposing his flawed motion, moving forward with discovery into his outrageous behavior, and proving to a jury that Mr. Weinstein maliciously damaged Ms. Judd’s career because she resisted his sexual advances."
In the original filing, Judd accused Weinstein of "retaliating" after she turned down the producer.
The court documents read: "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. A self-described ‘benevolent dictator’ who has bragged that ‘I can be scary,’ Weinstein used his power in the entertainment industry to damage Ms. Judd’s reputation and limit her ability to find work."
Judd was claiming for damages, an order to prevent Weinstein from "engaging in further retaliatory conduct towards" her, an injunction against Weinstein to "cease engaging in unfair competition" and legal costs.
Ashley Judd’s Harvey Weinstein allegations dismissed in court
