Paul Haggis will pay nearly $2 million to settle a lawsuit from a former film publicist who prevailed in a 2022 rape trial against the Crash director.
In one of several #MeToo era cases, the ex-publicist, Haleigh Breest, accused Haggis of rape and forcing her to perform oral sex in his Manhattan apartment in 2013. At the time, Haggis denied the allegations and maintained that he couldn’t recall whether they had sex. A jury ultimately sided with Breest and ordered him to pay roughly $7.5 million, with the judge later adding $2.8 million for legal fees.
Under the settlement, Haggis agreed to pay more than $1.9 million to resolve the case, according to a court notice filed on Monday. “The parties to this action have amicably resolved all disputes,” the document said.
The 2022 verdict came around the same time another civil jury, also in New York, found that Kevin Spacey didn’t sexually abuse a fellow actor. In Los Angeles, Harvey Weinstein and That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson were also on trial on criminal rape charges. Both were found guilty.
Breest, who met Haggis while working at movie premieres in the early 2010s, said she filed a lawsuit after learning of the director’s public condemnations of Weinstein. “This man raped me, and he is presenting himself as a champion of women to the world,” she said.
During the trial, four other women testified that they were subject to forceful, unwanted sexual advances by Haggis across several encounters going back to 1996, though none took legal action.
The deal to settle the case comes after Haggis, who wrote Million Dollar Baby and co-wrote two James Bond movies in the 2000s, said he spent all of his money fighting the case. He withdrew his appeals in 2024.
