Entertainment

/

ArcaMax

Kevin Costner's lawyer slams 'meritless' lawsuit alleging unscripted rape scene

Jami Ganz, New York Daily News on

Published in Entertainment News

Kevin Costner’s lawyer is slamming the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Ella Hunt’s stunt double claiming the Oscar winner subjected her to an unscripted rape scene on the set of “Horizon 2.”

On Tuesday, hotshot lawyer Marty Singer decried Devyn LaBella’s lawsuit, which she amended last week to include texts she allegedly sent to the intimacy coordinator in the days after the scene was shot.

“Ms. LaBella was doing a rehearsal on an Insert Shot for a scripted scene. There was no intimacy or anything sexual in the shot. There was tugging on a dress while she was fully clothed in a dress with long bloomers lying down next to a male actor,” Singer said in a statement shared with the Daily News. “Numerous witnesses have contradicted Ms. LaBella’s meritless claims.”

In addition to calling LaBella a “serial accuser of people in the entertainment industry,” Singer also pointed to her allegedly texting “her supervisor after she wrapped, stating, ‘Thank you for these wonderful weeks.'”

LaBella, 34, claims she “was the victim of a violent unscripted, unscheduled rape scene” in May 2023, when 70-year-old Costner — the director, co-writer and star of “Horizon: An American Saga” — allegedly asked her “to ‘stand in’ for Ms. Hunt to ‘line up [a] shot,'” according to the lawsuit filed in May and obtained by Variety.

Unaware that 27-year-old Hunt “walked off the set, refusing to do the scene,” LaBella says she “agreed to help” in the scene, during which no intimacy coordinator was present, in violation of SAG-AFTRA.

 

According to her suit, LaBella alleges that Costner directed actor Roger Ivens to “violently rustle” her skirt up “as if trying to penetrate her against her will” while “using his body and arms forcibly pinning [her] down.”

LaBella says she suffered “permanent trauma” as a result of the alleged incident and that her career has also suffered.

She accuses the “Yellowstone” star of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, failure to remedy/prevent discrimination and harassment, interference with the exercise of civil rights, intentional infliction of distress, retaliation and breach of contract, per Variety.

The second installment of “Horizon” is still awaiting a U.S. release after its predecessor’s disappointing box office performance last summer. Originally, the second chapter was slated for an August 2024 release, though neither it nor the third and fourth chapters have been scheduled.


©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus