Julia Ormond has landed a crushing legal blow against Hollywood powerhouse Creative Artists Agency (CAA), after a New York appeals court ruled the talent giant must face claims it failed to protect her from Harvey Weinstein.
The British actress — best known for Legends of the Fall, where she starred opposite Brad Pitt, and Sabrina — sued CAA in 2023, alleging the agency knowingly put her in harm’s way by arranging a private dinner with Weinstein in 1995 — where she says the disgraced producer sexually assaulted her.
On August 21, judges ruled Ormond’s case can move forward, blasting CAA’s arguments as unconvincing and leaving the agency humiliated, per Bloomberg Law.
The appellate court said Ormond had laid out sufficient allegations to show that she “would have avoided assault but for CAA’s misconduct in failing to warn or protect her.” A jury, the court added, could reasonably conclude the agency’s actions “proximately caused” her injuries.
For Ormond, the decision is a huge win. For CAA, it’s a nightmare and a bruising jury trial looms.
The ruling keeps alive claims of negligence and breach of fiduciary duty — charges that strike at the very heart of the agency’s relationship with its clients and the reputation of its leadership.
Making matters worse for CAA, Disney and Miramax — who were also named in the lawsuit — chose to settle in July and bow out of the fight.
According to the Daily Mail, citing documents lodged with a court in New York, Disney – which at the time owned Weinstein’s company Miramax – paid $5.75 million in an out-of-court settlement.
The Daily Mail further reporter the company says that the payment is not an admission of wrongdoing.
CAA pressed its appeal alone and lost.
An industry insider tells Star that CAA’s refusal to settle is already backfiring — and the agency is now turning on Disney for apparently abandoning them in the case.
“CAA are going scorched earth against Disney and making all kinds of threats behind the scenes. They are boxed in and playing a very dangerous game,” the industry insider says.
Meanwhile, an employee at CAA, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “People across all levels here feel the same disgust with how senior leadership are handling this. Where is the accountability?”
For Ormand’s part, her lawyers are confident they can show a jury the talent agency was aware of Weinstein’s conduct and that they also could have protected the actress and other women.
“We are grateful that the appeals court affirmed the trial court’s decision denying CAA’s motion to dismiss. This ruling makes clear that accountability extends beyond predators to the powerful institutions that shielded them in order to protect their profits,” Ormond’s lawyer Effie Blassberger of Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder, LLP said in a statement to Star.
“We look forward to trial, where we are confident CAA will be held responsible for its systematic failure to protect Ms. Ormond and countless other women from Weinstein’s abuse.”
Creative Artists Agency called the suit baseless and denies any wrongdoing.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source starmagazine.com ’
