Paul Haggis has reached a settlement with the former film publicist who won a $10 million rape verdict against him in 2022.
The ex-publicist, Haleigh Breest, accused the “Crash” director of raping her and forcing her to perform oral sex after a premiere in January 2013. Breest obtained $10 million verdict at a trial in New York. A judge later added $2.8 million for her attorneys’ fees, and the total judgment has been accruing interest since then.
Under the settlement, Haggis will pay just shy of $2 million, according to a stipulation filed on Monday. The document states that the parties “have amicably resolved all disputes between or among them.”
Breest sued Haggis at the height of the #MeToo movement in December 2017. She later said she was angered when she saw Haggis denounce Harvey Weinstein, who had been exposed as a serial sexual abuser weeks earlier.
Haggis maintained his innocence, and initially sued Breest on the claim that she was extorting him. A prominent former Scientologist, Haggis went on to allege that the allegations were part of a plot to punish him for speaking out against the church — though no evidence of that emerged.
At the trial, Breest testified that she reluctantly agreed to go to Haggis’ apartment in Manhattan after the premiere, but said she adamantly refused his sexual advances.
“I’m saying ‘No.’ I’m saying, ‘Stop.’ I’m saying it over and over,” she testified. “He looked like the devil. He seemed to like that I was saying no; that I was scared.”
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Haggis was 59 at the time; Breest was 26.
After the trial, Haggis vowed to appeal and said he had drained his accounts fighting the case.
“I’ve spent all the money I have at my disposal,” he told reporters. “I can’t live with lies like this. I would die clearing my name.”
Haggis’ appeals were withdrawn in 2024. Breest’s attorneys, meanwhile, sought to collect on the judgment while simultaneously pursuing settlement talks. As of March 2024, they had successfully levied just $61,000.
From Variety US