AFP extension
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
Canadian director and screenwriter Paul Haggis (69) must pay an additional $2.5 million in damages from a New York jury to a publicist he raped in 2013 after a film premiere in New York. This brings the total damages to $10 million.
Last week he had already been ordered to pay $7.5 million to the victim, Haleigh Breest, 36 years old. She is one of four women since 2017 who have come forward with sexual misconduct charges against the Oscar-winning director.
Although Haggis said on Friday he had no money to pay the $7.5m settlement, another $2.5m will be added. According to the director, he has earned about $25 million over forty years from his work in Hollywood.
‘Without money
During the lawsuit, Haggis said he suffered several financial losses over the years. According to him, the compensation of 7.5 million was the final blow. “Until my name is cleared, I will never work as a writer again,” he says.
Brest lawyers question his story. “You can’t trust anything Paul Haggis says.”
Oscars
Haggis has been writing scripts for popular TV series since the 1980s Different shots. At the beginning of this century he made his breakthrough as a screenwriter and director. He wrote the movie Million Dollar Baby by director Clint Eastwood, which received an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2004. A year later that award was given to Accidenta film written and directed by Haggis.
