Francis Ford Coppola has sued Variety, saying {that a} July story that mentioned he ran an unprofessional set with impunity and touching and tried to kiss feminine extras throughout the manufacturing of his movie “Megalopolis” was false and libelous.
The swimsuit, which seeks at the least $15 million from the leisure commerce publication, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, two weeks earlier than the director’s long-dreamed-of and self-financed epic is to be launched in U.S. theaters.
The swimsuit calls the 85-year-old director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” a “creative genius” and says others are “jealous” and due to this fact inform “knowing and reckless falsehoods.”
It says Variety’s “writers and editors, hiding behind supposedly nameless sources, accused Coppola of manifest incompetence as a movement image director, of unprofessional habits on the set of his most up-to-date manufacturing, Megalopolis, of organising some kind of scheme in order that anybody on the set who had a grievance of harassment or in any other case had nowhere to lodge a grievance, and of hugging topless actresses on the set. Each of those accusations was false.”
The lawsuit additionally names the story’s reporters, Brent Lang and Tatiana Siegel, as defendants.
It repeatedly says Variety was both knowingly publicizing falsehoods or displaying reckless disregard for the reality, echoing a normal for libel established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A Variety spokesperson, Jeffrey Schneider, instructed The Associated Press, “While we is not going to touch upon energetic litigation, we stand by our reporters.”
Coppola mentioned in an announcement Thursday that nothing in his profession compares to the tough but triumphant efforts to make “Megalopolis.”
“It was a collaboration of hundreds of artists, from extras to box office stars, to whom I consistently displayed the utmost respect and my deepest gratitude,” Coppola mentioned. “To see our collective efforts tainted by false, reckless and irresponsible reporting is devastating.”
The July 26 story used nameless studies and movies from crew members of the capturing for “Megalopolis” of a nightclub scene in an Atlanta live performance corridor in February, 2023. The story mentioned Coppola tried to kiss younger feminine extras and “appeared to act with impunity” on the set. It mentioned the movie’s monetary preparations meant “there were none of the traditional checks and balances in place.”
In one video, Coppola, carrying a white swimsuit, walks by a dancing crowd, stopping to apparently lean in to a number of younger ladies to hug them, kiss them on the cheek or whisper to them. Another video reveals him leaning into a lady who pulls away and shakes her head.
All of the ladies have tops on, and the Variety story mentions “topless” extras solely in reference to an authentic report on the allegations within the Guardian.
In a subsequent story a couple of week later, which is talked about solely parenthetically in Coppola’s lawsuit, one of many ladies, Lauren Pagone, spoke to Variety and agreed to be recognized, saying Coppola left her “in shock” when he touched, hugged and kissed her with out her consent.
Pagone mentioned she got here ahead as a result of one other of the extras, Rayna Menz, mentioned in Variety’s sister publication Deadline that Coppola did nothing to make her or anybody else on the set uncomfortable.
Pagone additionally filed a lawsuit Monday towards Coppola in Georgia, alleging that her remedy on the set amounted to civil assault and civil battery.
Asked for a selected response to that lawsuit, a Coppola consultant mentioned there can be no quick remark past the director’s broader assertion.
The AP doesn’t usually title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly as Pagone has.
Asked concerning the touching and kissing allegations by The AP earlier than the lawsuit was filed, Coppola mentioned, “I don’t even want to (talk about it). It’s a waste of time.”
Later in the identical interview, with out being requested concerning the topic once more, Coppola mentioned “I’m very respectful of women. I always have been. My mother taught me — she was a little nuts — she said, ‘Francis if you ever make a pass at a girl, that means you disrespect her.’ So I never did.”
The lawsuit takes specific challenge with an assertion within the Variety story that Coppola inadvertently bought right into a shot and ruined it. The swimsuit says Coppola was effectively conscious that some digital camera angles would come with him, and that he was supposed to look within the scene anyway.
“The average reader would understand that Coppola was so aged and infirm that he no longer knew how to direct a motion picture,” the swimsuit says.
“Megalopolis” is a Roman epic set in a futuristic New York starring Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel. Coppola offered off items of his appreciable wine empire to largely finance it himself.
AP Film Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.