Jury orders Filmmaker Paul Haggis to pay $7.5M in rape suit

By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury has ordered Academy Award-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis to pay at least $7.5 million to a woman who accused him of rape. The jury also plans to award additional punitive damages. The verdict in the civil case came Thursday in one of several #MeToo-era cases that have put Hollywood notables’ behavior on trial this fall. The lawsuit pitted the screenwriter-director against a publicist who met him while working at movie premieres in the early 2010s. Haggis said the January 2013 encounter in his New York apartment was consensual. He is known for writing best picture Oscar winners “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash.”