CAA had been silent all day Wednesday since Julia Ormond named the uber-agency and Disney in her sexual battery lawsuit against the imprisoned Harvey Weinstein, but tonight the Bryan Lourd-led company is calling its inclusion in the action “baseless.”
In fact, CAA stopped just short of citing the claim of breach of fiduciary duty by their former client as a shakedown of sorts.
“CAA takes all allegations of sexual assault and abuse seriously, and has compassion for Ms. Ormond and the experience she described in her complaint,” an agency spokesperson said tonight. “However, the claims that Ms. Ormond has levied against the agency are completely without merit. Through counsel, Ms. Ormond approached CAA in March with these allegations about the agency. Knowing these allegations to be untrue, the agency then retained attorney Loretta Lynch and her law firm, Paul Weiss, to defend the company. Their review found nothing to support Ms. Ormond’s claims against CAA.”
Ormond, now represented by Gersh, claims in the suit that Lourd and Kevin Huvane dissuaded the rising star from taking legal action against Weinstein in 1995 to avoid incurring the producer’s wrath and hurting her career. Mentioning the standard settlement figure with the then-mogul being about $100,000, the filing in New York Supreme Court goes on to allege that Ormand’s CAA agents knew of “multiple confidential settlements that Weinstein reached to keep his conduct hidden from public exposure.”
Not so, says CAA tonight. In fact, it was Ormond who wanted money in 2023.
“CAA received a demand, through its counsel, from Ms. Ormond’s attorneys, that CAA pay $15,000,000 in exchange for Ms. Ormond not making the allegations against CAA public,” the CAA spokesperson added Wednesday.
“CAA immediately rejected this demand.”
“Out of respect for Ms. Ormond, CAA shared the results of Paul Weiss’ investigation with her, through her counsel, providing evidence of a dynamic and engaged relationship between CAA and Ms. Ormond, and the agency’s consistent efforts to support her career throughout her time at the agency, from 1995-1999.”
“Ms. Ormond’s claims against CAA are baseless, and the agency will vigorously refute them in court,” concludes the Century City-based outfit, which just this week closed the deal for Artémis, run by French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, to take a majority stake in the company.
Weinstein, 74, is currently behind bars in Los Angeles after begin sentenced in February to 16 years for rape and other sex crimes. The Oscar-winning producer was extradited to L.A. in 2021 to face a multitude of charges after he was sentenced to 23 years by a Manhattan judge in March 2020 for other rape and sex crimes.
Responding to CAA’s response to today’s lawsuit, Ormond’s main lawyer took a swipe at the credibility of the agency’s outside counsel.
“CAA admits that they hired Loretta Lynch to ‘defend’ them,” Doug Wigdor told Deadline tonight. “It’s not surprising, therefore, that she found nothing to support our client’s claims.”
Wigdor goes on to say: “I should also add that Ms. Lynch believes, contrary to what everyone knows, that the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would be a fair arbitrator in the historic race discrimination claim we have brought against the NFL. It is rather obvious that after years of public service, large deep pocketed corporate defendants have turned to Ms. Lynch for cover and she has willingly accepted her new role. Rest assured, we will expose the real facts.”
A rep for Weinstein declared “the evidence will not support Ms. Ormond’s claims.”
Disney has still not commented on Ormond’s claims or suit.