Marilyn Manson’s reps have clapped back at a magazine for asking the shock rocker about his ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood and her public comments about an abusive relationship with a man she has never identified.
“Your journalist had the opportunity to ask Manson about his music – one of only two interviews granted in the UK – and he chose not to,” the singer’s PR said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, we live in a time where people believe what they read on the Internet, and feel free to say what they want with no actual evidence. The effects can be catastrophic and promoting non fact based information is wholly irresponsible. All we can try and do, as the media and individuals, is to use facts and truth and not hide behind gossip and conjecture to further our own agendas.”
Metal Hammer, which calls itself “The world’s biggest and best metal magazine,” said Manson abruptly ended a phone interview with Dave Everley in September when he was asked about Wood.
“We wanted to know … how devastating it must feel to be be implicated in something like this if he had absolutely nothing to do with it,” read a message posted on the Metal Hammer website earlier this week. “We were interested in hearing his side of the story. We asked, but we didn’t get an answer. Marilyn Manson hung up on us as soon as we mentioned her name, and his people refused to have him answer any further questions.”
Last year, Wood testified in front of the California Senate Public Safety Committee in support of extending the statue of limitations on domestic violence crimes from three to five years. She detailed an abusive relationship with a man she met in her late teens.
Wood started dating Manson in late 2006 or early 2007, when she was 19. They were engaged in 2010 but split seven months later.
The actress, now 33, did not identify her allegedly abusive ex.
“It’s important we clarify that we’re not accusing Marilyn Manson of anything,” Metal Hammer’s message to readers added.
In their statement, Manson’s reps responded: “Personal testimony is just that, and we think it’s inappropriate to comment on that.” They added that Wood has spoken “very positively” about her relationship with Manson in interviews and that he remains friends with ex fiancée Rose McGowan and former wife Dita Von Teese.
Manson’s reps criticized Metal Hammer for referring to a 2009 interview with Spin in which Manson said of Wood: "I have fantasies every day about smashing her skull in with a sledgehammer." They wrote: "It was “obviously a theatrical rock star interview promoting a new record, and not a factual account. The fact that [Wood] and Manson got engaged six months after this interview would indicate that no one took this story literally.”
The reps added that Manson “has spent his career being blamed for everything from [the] Columbine [mass shooting] to teenage suicide.”