Julia Ormond is asking a court to enforce a subpoena against CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, after he skipped a noticed deposition in June.
Ormond is suing the agency for allegedly setting her up to be sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in December 1995 — a charge the agency has adamantly denied.
Ovitz left the agency to take the number-two job at Disney in August 1995. Ormond’s lawyers want to question him about the agency’s ties to Weinstein and about comments he has made regarding sexual harassment in the industry in that era.
In 2018, Ovitz told CBNC that sexual harassment had been around Hollywood “since its inception.”
“This whole concept has been around forever and it’s always been swept under the rug,” he said.
According to a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, Ormond’s lawyers filed a deposition notice on May 29, ordering Ovitz to appear on June 12. Ovitz did not respond and did not appear at the appointed time and place for the deposition.
The filing seeks a court order compelling him to give testimony in the case.
Ormond sued Weinstein, Miramax, Disney and CAA in 2023. Earlier this year, she reached a settlement with Disney and Miramax, who have been excused from the case.
Ormond alleges that her CAA agents, Kevin Huvane and Bryan Lourd, failed to warn her of Weinstein’s history of sexual assault before she had dinner with him in New York in December 1995. After the dinner, which she thought was to be a business meeting, Weinstein brought her back to a Miramax apartment in Soho and sexually assaulted her, according to her complaint.
In a filing in June, CAA stated that deposition testimony shows that Ormond was already aware of Weinstein’s history prior to the meeting, because he had already sexually harassed her. Ormond had also been warned about Weinstein by her U.K. agent before first meeting him in 1994.
Ormond alleges that after the incident, her CAA agents sought to dissuade her from reporting it — a charge CAA also denies. Ormond alleges that her career dried up following the incident, and maintains in the lawsuit that she faced retaliation from Weinstein.
Her lawyers are seeking Ovitz’s testimony as well as any documents he may have reflecting correspondence with Weinstein or awareness of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct.
