Marilyn Manson
Despite being known for his music and a weird rumor made in the early 2000s about the state of his ribs, Marilyn Manson didn’t appear in the media last summer due to a new album or anything remotely happy. He had been, yet again, accused of emotional and physical abuse, in various forms. June 2021 marked the month when the fourth lawsuit against him had been filed, this time by Ashley Morgan Smithline.
Smithline, along with more than a dozen women, had alleged the same type of misconduct committed by Manson. Some of the names hold heavy importance and some may even ring some bells, like actress Esmé Bianco, who starred in “Game of Thrones”, his former personal assistant Ashley Walkers, and a woman who has remained anonymous are the other three that have filed official lawsuits against the showman. Earlier that year in February, Manson’s ex-fiancee and “Westworld” actress Evan Rachel Wood claimed publicly that Manson had been abusing her behind closed doors for years.
Despite all of these women coming forward with their stories, Manson has denied all the allegations brought against him and even pushed back. Commenting on the situation when Wood’s allegations surfaced, he claimed that his intimate relationships have always been consensual and that his partners have been on the same wavelength as him. He went as far as saying that people are misrepresenting the truth and what truly happened in the past, even questioning the motives they have for doing so.
Whatever is the truth may be, we’ll have to find out as the cases are brought to court in front of a judge.
Bill Cosby
It is impossible not to have heard about the Bill Cosby controversy, with how much media attention it got. The comedian had been accused by Andrea Constand of drugging and assaulting her at his place right outside Philadelphia in 2004. She has subsequently also pressed charges against him. As of April 2018, he has been convicted of these charges and sentenced to a three to ten-year prison term.
During his sentence, there had been dozens of other women coming forward with their stories of abuse, assault, and overall misconduct, showcasing just how the man had used his fame for the wrong reasons. However, not everything turned out rosy: in June 2020, Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his assault conviction, which resulted in the release of the 83-year-old comedian from the state prison.
Being known and beloved as “America’s Dad”, Cosby was fortunate enough that the court found an agreement made with a previous prosecutor that stated that he could not be charged in the case. According to experts, it also prevented him from being tried again. Despite not being in prison anymore or the possibility of being brought in front of the court again, the whole case served to show how one cannot abuse their power for their own satisfaction. It may not appease the victims, but they can at least find peace in the fact that people know what a horrible man Bill Cosby is.
Ed Westwick
Maybe you remember his face from one of the most iconic TV shows of the 2000s, Gossip Girl. Ed Westwick played the character of Chuck Bass, and back in 2017, he was accused of inappropriate misconduct by two women. This is a weird parallel with what his most famous character portrayal was up to in the first season.
Kristina Cohen, a fellow actress, had accused him of assaulting her while she was over at his house and filed a police report in November 2017. That same day as the news broke, the actor went on Twitter to deny the allegations, saying he did not even know the actress, and that he doesn’t conduct himself in such a way, never forcing himself upon anyone.
A week later Rachel Eck came forward saying that Ed touched her without her consent in a Buzzfeed report. In 2018, prosecutors declined to file the charges against Westwick.
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