Disgraced screenwriter, director and producer Paul Haggis, who teaches acting classes in Italy, won a verdict more than a year ago for a woman who accused him of sexual assault several years ago. I’m having a hard time getting him to pay his bills.
Haley Brest, a former movie publicist, filed the lawsuit. crash In 2017, director Haggis claimed he raped her four years earlier after a premiere of a movie when she was 26 and he was 59. A New York jury awarded Mr. Brest $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages, but Mr. Haggis has yet to pay a cent of that.
The Oscar-winning director teaches acting workshops in Italy and charges participants $350 per person for the three-day intensive class in central Rome, according to an email reviewed by The Daily Beast.
The email account haggisclass@gmail.com began sending out flyers advertising “Acting Workshops with Paul Haggis” in September. In this workshop, 20 participants will have the opportunity to practice scenes from Paul Haggis. million dollar baby Screenwriter. (Haggis has included this email address in the profile of his now-private Instagram account, instructing his followers to contact him for more information about the workshop.) An email advertising the workshop in early November said the class “fills up quickly” and recommended it to anyone interested. “Reserve your spot now.”
A flyer for one workshop features testimonies from three people, believed to be former students, who describe his “energy and passion” and how the actor “focuses on a given situation and makes it true.” It praises the ability to “help people learn to use it as a tool to reach others.” ”
“Thanks to Paul and his classes, I learned to trust and create my dreams,” one testimonial reads.
The Daily Beast examined emails promoting two such crash courses. One he was in early November and one he was in early September. Later this month, he will teach a redesigned workshop focused on the audition process, according to the email. The class costs him 330 euros, or about $350.
Haggis’ lawyer declined to comment.
During his sexual assault trial, Haggis testified that he earned between $22 million and $25 million over the course of his career, during which he wrote screenplays for blockbuster series such as: terminator And James Bond. But his lawyers argued that he had been “financially devastated” by legal fees in the case, two costly divorces and several other poor financial decisions.
“He will not be able to pay the judgment you have already entered,” his lawyer told jurors in November 2022, just before awarding Mr. Brest an additional $2.5 million in damages. “And he can’t pay any more.”
However, Brest did not back down and waged a relentless legal battle to force the director to pay compensation. This summer, she petitioned the court to order him to sell her $2.9 million SoHo apartment and give her the proceeds, a request the court granted late last month.
Brest, a former publicist, also took aim at Mr Haggis’ ex-wife Deborah Leonard, in a petition filed this summer alleging that Mr Haggis gifted her money and property to avoid paying the judgment. are doing. The judge ordered Leonard to appear in court later this month to face Brest’s claims that she sent $20,000 to her ex-husband in violation of her restraining order.
Ms. Brest also filed a separate lawsuit against Ms. Leonard last month, alleging that she and her ex-husband had “taken Haggis’s assets out of his hands and placed them in the hands of Mr. Haggis, thereby enforcing the anticipated judgment.” It denounced “long-standing efforts to thwart, delay, or defraud Ms. Brest by circumventing it.” Leonard’s. ”
Leonard’s attorney told The Daily Beast that his client “vehemently denies the allegations and allegations asserted by the plaintiff and will rely on her written response, which has been filed with the court and is pending.” .
Four other women testified in favor of Brest at Haggis’ trial, three of them claiming that the director made unwanted sexual advances, and a fourth claiming that the director raped her. Haggis denied everything, saying she was “humiliated by the false allegations” and suggested that the Church of Scientology, which she has been a vocal critic of, was behind the accusations.
And Mr Brest is not the only one demanding payment from Mr Haggis. The legal services his lawyers used to prepare for the trial are suing Haggis for $73,726 in unpaid fees. A New York State Supreme Court judge ordered the case to go to trial last November. Mr Haggis has not yet responded.