After unsuccessfully trying to have to get themselves extricated from Julia Ormond’s 2023 filed Harvey Weinstein sexual assault, Disney and Miramax have reached a deal with the Emmy winner, but CAA isn’t making it easy for them to move on.
Just under two weeks after Ormond’s sealed settlement with the Bob Iger-run company and its former Weinstein brothers subsidiary popped up in the New York state court docket, the uberagency late Monday demanded more leverage in another attempt to refute its former client. In her own negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims against CAA, Ormond alleges execs like Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane knew exactly what danger the actress was getting into when she went for a CAA arranged dinner with the Pulp Fiction producer in late 1995.
CAA has insisted almost since the moment Ormond’s lawyers at Wigdor LLP filed in the sexual battery action in October 2023 that no such assertion of complicity is true. Having been subjected to some slings and arrows from Ari Emanuel over the years over this case, Lourd and Huvamne made the same rejection of Ormond’s premise in their individual deposition in the matter.
Which is why they want Empire State Justice Eric Schumacher to reject Ormond’s request for an order of discontinuance for Disney and Miramax because of the deal, and one presumes pay-out, they made with the Sabrina star. “Miramax and Disney have stonewalled every discovery request in this case,” CAA says.
“In order for CAA to put on a vigorous defense, its affirmative defense and cross-claims requireMiramax and Disney to participate in this litigation,” an opposition filing Monday by the agency’s ex-Attorney General Loretta Lynch-led Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Dunn Isaacson Rhee joint legal team states. “Plaintiff’s Motion to release Miramax and Disney from this lawsuit will unduly infringe CAA’s rights and prejudice its defense. The Court should not grant the Motion until and unless Miramax and Disney produce all relevant documents in their possession, custody, and control and provide dates certain as to when corporate representatives will sit for deposition.”
Outside of court, a day before another CAA deposition is scheduled and two weeks after the much-accused Weinstein’s NYC rape retrial resulted in a partial mistrial, the agency made it less about discovery and more what they had discovered about Ormond.
“CAA has obtained discovery from Ms. Ormond – including deposition testimony and detailed writings she made in 2017 – that significantly undermines the allegations in her complaint and validates CAA’s steadfast denial of her claims against the company,” a spokesperson told Deadline tonight.
“Ms. Ormond has admitted that before she became a CAA client, she had a preexisting business relationship with Harvey Weinstein and had been subject to a pattern of his sexual harassment and misconduct,” the said spokesperson went on to say. “She has also failed to develop any record showing that CAA had the requisite knowledge of Weinstein’s history of sexual assault at any time to sustain her claims against CAA. The compelling evidence CAA has obtained so far demonstrates the importance of CAA maintaining its right to pursue discovery from Disney and Miramax.”
Previously, CAA has said that Ormond sought $15 million to keep them out of the case.
Disney did not respond for request for comment on the settlement with Ormond, nor the pushback from CAA, when contacted by Deadline. The now Gersh-repped Ormpnd’s primary attorney in this case, Doug Wigdor, also did not responded for comment on the state of the case and CAA’s objections.
Looking already at spending what remains of his life behind bars due the June 12 partial conviction and a 2022 LA rape trial, the ailing 73-year-old Weinstein has not filed any paperwork on the Disney and Miramax settlement. Weinstein will be back in court in Manhattan on July 2 for a hearing on how to go forward with another retrial on the remaining, undecided charge of third-degree rape involving accuser Jessica Mann. Judge Curtis Farber proposed earlier this month trying to that latest retrial moving ASAP.
In this Ormond case, Weinstein’s deposition is sealed like the Disney/Miramax settlement.
The post CAA Wants Disney’s Settlement With Julia Ormond & Exit From Harvey Weinstein Sexual Assault Suit Blocked appeared first on Deadline.
