Director Paul Haggis (‘Crash’) has to pay 7.5 million after being raped

Canadian film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, 69, was sentenced by a New York jury to pay $7.5 million in damages to a publisher he raped after a movie premiere in New York in 2013.

The 36-year-old victim, Haleigh Breest, is one of four women accused of sexual harassment by the director since 2017. But Breest is also the only person to sue.

The jury proved that Haggis invited her to his house after a movie premiere and forced her to have oral sex. Evidence included text and email messages between the two in the weeks before and after the rape, as well as testimonies from other victims. According to Haggis, sex between the two was consensual.

Compensation, not punishment

Unlike other notorious sexual violence cases in the film industry, this is a civil case, not a criminal case: a jury can award damages, but not jail time. Two years ago, filmmaker Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison, including rape.

After the verdict, Breest said in a press release that he was “very grateful that the jury chose to follow the facts and believe me.” Haggis later said he was “very disappointed”. “I will continue to fight with my team to clear my name.”

scientology

Haggis has been writing screenplays for popular television series since the 1980s. different strokes, and prospered as a film writer and director in the early part of this century. he wrote the movie million dollar baby By director Clint Eastwood, who won the Best Picture Oscar in 2004. One year later this award was given accidentFilm written and directed by Haggis.

In 2009, Haggis made headlines about his public departure from the Church of Scientology, of which he had been a member for decades. He declared that he could no longer justify the threats and money greed of the Hollywood popular movement.

Haggis and his lawyers now say the lawsuit is Scientology’s revenge, although they did not provide any evidence at the time of the lawsuit.