About one month into Sex Predatorgate 2017, I just stopped paying attention to the half-assed apologies from the accused predators. The apologies were far from boilerplate, but most of them were oddly-worded half-admissions, half-threats. Some of the predators tried to spin some sort of tale about how mysterious forces were out to get them, or that they are victims of some kind of witch hunt. I just started tuning it all out. Life’s too short. But this story did give me pause. You see, Paul Haggis has been accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct and rape. Haggis is an Oscar-winning screenwriter and director of the Oscar-winning film Crash. He’s also well-known as an ex-Scientologist – he left CoS years ago, and he became one of the most high-profile Scientology-critics in Hollywood. Now he says that the accusation of rape and misconduct might be connected to his anti-Scientology stance.
Paul Haggis, the Oscar-winning director of Crash and screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby, is the latest Hollywood figure to be accused of sexual misconduct, including alleged rape of two women. The married, 64-year-old filmmaker, who years ago gained more fame speaking out against against Scientology after leaving the religion, denies the allegations.
In mid-December, publicist Haleigh Breest filed a civil lawsuit against Haggis, claiming he raped her in 2013 in a New York City apartment after a film premiere. He counter-sued, denying the allegations and accusing her of extortion, saying she had demanded a $9 million settlement. Breest’s lawyer has called his claims “ludicrous.” Breest’s filing recently inspired three more women to go public, anonymously, with their own claims of sexual assault and harassment by Haggis, saying their encounters with him took place between 1996 and 2015, according to multiple outlets, including Fox News. They have not filed any legal action against the filmmaker, who has also not been charged with a crime.
The outlets said that one of the new accusers, also a publicist, claimed that in 1996, while working on a television show that Haggis produced, he allegedly tried to kiss her and when she resisted, he said, ‘Do you really want to continue working?'” He then allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him and raped her. Breest had made similar claims.
A third accuser said she met with Haggis at his Los Angeles office in the late ’00s to pitch him a TV show idea and that during the meeting, he allegedly told her he had an arrangement with his wife to have extramarital relationships and then tried to kiss her. She said she ran out and he followed her but she managed to drive away.
A fourth woman claims that in 2015 in Canada, Haggis forcibly kissed her, then followed her into her taxi, rode with her to her apartment, paid the driver, chased her and kissed her again before she was able to get into her residence and shut the door. She said that over the next 24 hours, he sent her harassing text messages and that she soon blocked him. Fox News said Haggis’ lawyer said the filmmaker “denies these anonymous claims in whole.”
“In a society where one of a person’s fundamental rights is the ability to confront an accuser, that right has now been eviscerated when it comes to anyone being charged in the press with any sort of sexual misconduct,” the attorney said. “Notably, no one has reached out to anyone on Mr. Haggis’ team other than the press to report this. He views the fact that these reports appear to be spearheaded from the law-firm representing Ms. Breest, as a further tactic to try to harm him and continue their effort to obtain money. Mr. Haggis also questions whether Scientology has any role here, which he notes has been attacking him for years with false accusations. We reiterate our claim against Ms. Breest, and note again that we initiated the legal proceedings, not Ms. Breest.”
The argument of “are we just going to do this in the media and not a court of law” isn’t much of an argument. The overwhelming majority of the #MeToo movement has been trial-by-media and punishment outside of the justice system. Few victims of harassment, abuse, rape and assault trust the justice system with their stories, and for good reason – the few women who do report to police aren’t believed, or their cases are never prosecuted. I believe it’s more than possible that Paul Haggis assaulted, abused or raped a half-dozen women. I believe it’s more than possible that he’s blaming Scientology for his own criminal behavior. And… I also believe that Scientology is really f–ked up and they really go after their most prominent critics. So, you tell me: what do you believe?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Ugh. This is a tough one. And, literally, if I didn’t know how Scientology is, I would say he’s guilty.
But we’re talking about a cult who have absolutely perfected taking people down – they have made it into a science. They follow people, they harass people, and drive people to insanity and death.
Do I think he did it – I don’t know.
Do I think these accusations are outside the realm of Scientology’s scope? Not at all.
This is such a test – my strident feminism tells me to believe women who come forward but capitalizing on the #metoo movement in order to take down an “SP” is exactly the kind of nefarious thing Scientology would do. However, given Haleigh was brave enough to come forward, and I haven’t heard anything about her being a member of the CoS, I come down on the side of believing that this did happen.
This one is scary. It’s one where the history of the accusers is extremely relevant. Not their sexual history, but definitely their past associations. Xenu is more than f***ed up enough to pull something like this. I sincerely hope this gets a legal investigation.
However…
Haggis has some questionable history if you google his name with Crash and Thandie Newton. This is less “out of the blue” than it may appear.
This is so so tricky. He 100% could have done it but Co$ could 100% be setting him up. Both are equally likely which is gross/sad.
I am a bit ashamed of myself, but yeah, I do wonder if any of these women is involved with Scientology. History has proven that the attacks of Scientology know no bounds, legally, morally or ethically. They simply attack the enemy with the intent to decimate.
In the current era, because their tactics are so well known, evidence is usually found of their involvement. I am waiting to hear if there is shady scientology garbage at play.
As we have learned, men who seem reasonable, enlightened, aspirational, and downright lovely and still men who rape, assault, threaten and harass women.
So, we believe the women. Unless scientology is “proven” to be involved.
[I put it in quotes, b/c it seems like a loaded word in this instance].
I have been staunchly #believewomen since the ish started to hit the fan (and before that, as I work in entertainment), but this particular accusation might be shady. Haggis has been instrumental in the growing exposure of the true nature of the Scientology cult. This is an organization that has been responsible for the deaths of some former members. They’ve launched year-long harassment campaigns against defectors. So far, they’ve been unsuccessful in their attempts to damage Haggis. I could see them trying to take advantage of the zeitgeist. That said, if the dude is guilty, let it rain fire.
I can’t “believe” one side over another. I also don’t deny. I think Ms. Brees should be heard. I think all accusers and accusees (?) should be heard. It’ also quite suspicious that the other accusers are anonymous and telling the perfect story to back up Ms. Brees. However, if her law firm were distributing fake stories that would be unethical and unlawful. They could lose their licenses, right? On another note, someone really needs to crack down on Scientology.
I agree with you. I guess I misunderstood “believe” part of the movement. If a woman spoke out about sexual assault I would not question her and would do anything to help her but actually confronting the man? No way, I did that once and it did not end well. Turns out it was a false accusation. I lost my friend after that. So I “believe” women, by that i mean I would be 100% supportive of anyone ( male or female) who confides in me about sexual assault but I don’t write off the accused automatically.
Well, I will wait for a while before making any conclusion this time. CoS is definitely capable of this kind of behavior.
I don’t know what to think about this one.
My inclination is to believe the women.
Haggis using our distrust of Scientology to sway public opinion would be just as unethical as Scientology using our trust of women coming forward to convict him in the public court. This one is messy.
I’m torn on this. I’m not from the “we must believe every accuser with no questions asked” camp only b/c I’ve witnessed a woman I was close to lie about several sexual assaults to extort money from men. She is no longer a part of my life in anyway. I know that some people lie about these things, unfortunately. I’m a survivor of a violent double sexual assault myself so to see someone lie about it in such a way really affected me.
With that being said, I have nothing personally invested in this particular case but I would not put it past Scientology to do this. I think there is a good chance he is innocent but only time will tell. If it is all lies from Scientology, he needs to sue then for every untaxed dollar they have.
This is the closest I’ve come to believing an alleged perp, only because I just read “Going Clear” a few months ago.
Scientology is scary, and they HATE Paul Haggis.
I agree…..Scientology will stop at nothing to decimate its outspoken opponents, and Paul Haggis is one of its top critics. It is definitely a case that makes you pause. I tend to believe him only b/c I have seen and read about the lengths Scientology goes to in order to destroy its detractors. Tony Ortega wrote an biography about this very thing “The Unbreakable Miss Lovely” and it is horrifying what Scientology is capable of doing to its opponents.
I read the Haggis report a few years ago and it was devastating. They need to investigate if any of those women has connections to Co$. If that’s the case, he is definitely being set up.
While I wouldn’t put it past COS to do this, I also wouldn’t put it past a man in a position of power to abuse that power.
I believe the accusers. Unless they are all proven to have ties to COS, I believe them.
Conundrum…
For sure CO$ could be behind this. Idk… something else needs to be presented like in so many of these outings. An accused comes forward. Tells their story. And more come forward. Pattern behavior. If those women have ties to the cult yea. Idk.
Take this to court, the legal system, and let it play out there in this case. If he’s being set up by CoS then that should come out in the wash so to speak, if not, then the jury will sort that out on behalf of the women. This is that one case where the situation needs to go through a more strenuous examination.
CoS is absolutely capable of going after people in the worst way possible.
It’s a tough one… It’s seems like it’s so easy for rich, powerful men to get away with rape and sexual assault and therefore, the story makes sense. But I also remember the Paul Haggis CoS story, what he said about becoming OT8 and reading that darn folder where you “learn” about aliens, volcanos and all that crazy stuff (which the CoS is pissed that it’s common knowledge now), leaving the organization and knowing that he’ll eventually be targeted because of it and yeah… The CoS is really good at doing hit jobs and I can see them using the #meetoo moment as a mean to target a defector; they’re that low.
I’d like to think that counter-suing is a good sign of being not guilty, but I also know it’s easy for someone that’s rich to do that to silence you. Do I want to believe Haggis because I hate the CoS so much? But I want to believe women too and mostly believe that no one would go so low as to accuse someone of rape because they left your cult. That’d be an insult to all the victims and I don’t want to think there are such monsters out there. So yeah, totally conflicted
I read a blind about this well before any accusations came to light about Haggis. It pretty much said the Co$ was going to use the momentum to bring down a former member. In this case, and given who we are dealing with, I believe Haggis. This is a group that has a history of framing those who speak out about them. Look at Paulette Cooper. They straight up framed her for making bomb threats and had the FBI go after them. I fear for the women speaking out against Danny Masterson.
This one is hard but if there is collusion here i think it will be uncovered. I tend to air on the side of the ones that come forward just because the chances that its false is small. But I’m going to be watching this one closely.
Also this is the case people were dragging Kristie Alley for because she was celebrating Haggis being taken down but telling people we should wait on Masterson. Because Scientology. This is the type of sh*t that makes it impossible for me to ever support Moss. They do some scary stuff
Smells like Scientology to me.
Not a chance Haggis would do anything like this knowing Scientilogy was waiting to pounce. They are ruthless people.
The leader of sci once sent his goonies to harass his own father for leaving the “church” and when they were spying on him one day in a car park he had some sort of attack and they wrre on the phone to Miscavige at the time and asked what to do – he simply replied”if its his time; its his time”
Because of the players involved, it is too murky and should be thoroughly investigated. I would hate for it to be true and he gets away with it, and I would hate for it to be a plot to ruin someone’s life.
Scientology is so evil I can’t dismiss their maneuvers.
I feel horrible saying this, but I’m inclined to believe this. I want to believe women wouldn’t lie about this, but I’ve seen way to many episodes of Leah Remini’s show. I understand how insidious and destructive this cult can be with their enemies. A poster on another website also pointed out that he had major back surgery during the time one of accusers claimed he assaulted her and probably wasn’t physically able to do this. I just don’t know.
I worked with this guy and he was an asshole. I never heard anything about sexual impropriety, but he was widely regarded as rude and arrogant.
I’m leaning towards he’s guilty. Wouldn’t scientologists be worried about the repercussions of being caught If this were a scheme? A person could go to jail for making false charges, correct? Further, the women’s stories are alike and believable.
There is a small parr of me that is wondering; however, if he knew any of Danny Masterson’s accusers and had anything to do with getting one of them to come forward. Could scientology be out for revenge? Would they go that far?
If he is not guilty, I hope he has hired some really good private investigators to prove the people who accused him have ties to scientology.