Famed movie composer Danny Elfman sued over sexual harassment
Famed movie composer Danny Elfman is being sued for breach of contract over sexual harassment allegations.
Composer Nomi Abadi claims Elfman failed to pay $85,000 ($A125,000) of a $830,000 (A$1.22M) settlement the pair signed five years ago.
Elfman strongly denied any accusations of sexual misconduct – describing them as “vicious and wholly false”.
Famed movie composer sued for sexual harassment
Elfam is known for creating ‘The Simpsons’ theme song, in addition to the music for ‘Spiderman’, ‘Men In Black’ and Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’.
According to a Rolling Stone investigation, the now 70 year-old Elfman sexually harassed Abadi in 2015 and 2016.
After the pair met in 2015, Elfman asked an acquaintance for Abadi’s email address and the two began communicating about music.
Rolling Stone cites a 2017 police report in which Abadi alleges that Elfman exposed himself and masturbated in front of her multiple times.
The report categorises the allegations as “indecent exposure”.
Abadi also accused Elfman of presenting her with a glass of what she said was semen.
Composer denies allegations
Rolling Stone did not speak to Abadi for the story.
Meanwhile, Elfman (through his lawyers) strongly denied any allegations of sexual harassment:
“How do I respond to accusations so serious that being innocent is not a valid defense? It is excruciating to consider that a 50-year career may be destroyed in one news cycle as a result of vicious and wholly false allegations about sexual misconduct.”
The Grammy and Emmy award winning composer said Abadi had a ‘childhood crush’ on him and accused her of wanting to break up his marriage so that she could replace his wife.
“When this person realized that I wanted distance from her, she made it clear that I would pay for having rejected her. I allowed an ill-advised friendship to have far-reaching consequences, and that error in judgment is entirely my fault. I have done nothing indecent or wrong, and my lawyers stand ready to prove with voluminous evidence that these accusations are false. This is the last I will say on this subject.”
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Non-disclosure agreement
Abadi entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Elfman in 2018, signing the $830,000 settlement.
A friend of Abadi who spoke to Rolling Stone said:
“She felt her career would be over if she said Elfman was a creep. And she’s right. I’m sorry to say, but that’s still unfortunately how this industry works.”
Elfman’s lawyers said Elfman also had little choice but to sign the agreement:
“When faced with threats from the other party to go public with untruths at the height of the #MeToo movement, [Elfman] faced the impossible choice between settling and continuing his career and earning a living for his family or deciding to fight what at the time was an unwinnable battle to tell the truth — Danny chose his family.”
The new court action
Meanwhile, Abadi filed her breach of contract complaint in the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse seeking the outstanding $85,000.
Her court documents state that “the parties agreed to resolve an underlying dispute” in July 2018.
This included Elfman making four payments over the course of five years, totaling $830,000.
Picture credit: Sachyn Mital /Wikimedia Commons
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