CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz was ordered Friday to testify in court as part of Julia Ormond’s ongoing lawsuit against the agency for allegedly setting the stage for Harvey Weinstein to sexually assault her in December 1995.
The decision came down from the Supreme Court of New York after Ovitz skipped a deposition in June 2025 and failed to formally respond to the court. Ormond launched the effort to force Ovitz to adhere to the subpoena last July, on the grounds he held relevant information about CAA’s relationship with Weinstein at the time of her alleged assault, including the mogul’s history of sexual misconduct with young actresses.
The agency’s motion to access the “Sabrina” actress’ mental health records, meanwhile, was denied.
Ovitz left the agency for the number-two job under Michael Eisner at Disney in August 1995. Ormond’s lawyers want to question Ovitz about the agency’s relationship with Weinstein and comments he has made about sexual harassment during that period.
Ovitz told CNBC back in 2018 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,” Ovitz said.
Ormond initially filed the lawsuit against Weinstein, Miramax, Disney and CAA back in 2023. She reached a settlement with Disney and Miramax earlier this year. Both Disney and Miramax have been excused from the case.
According to court documents obtained and reviewed by TheWrap, the lawsuit alleged Weinstein sexually assaulted Ormond in 1995 and that Disney and CAA failed to protect her.
The complaint claimed that former Hollywood mogul Weinstein forced himself on the actress for oral sex. Moreover, the suit alleged that CAA and the Walt Disney Company, which owned Weinstein’s Miramax from 1993 to 2010, knew of the now-imprisoned producer’s predatory behavior and did nothing to protect her.
The suit marked a rare instance of the mogul’s business partners being held as complicit in Weinstein’s behavior. It specifically stated that the “sexual assault on Ormond could have been prevented if Miramax or Disney had properly supervised Weinstein and not retained him while knowing that he was a danger to the women he encountered at work.”
Ormond claimed in the suit that her agents at CAA persuaded her against taking legal action at the time of the incidents to avoid potential retaliation from Weinstein. While the alleged assault occurred over 30 years ago, New York’s Adult Survivors Act allowed Ormond to bring civil torts related to the incident.
Last June, CAA filed court documents calling Ormond’s claims “utterly baseless,” since the actress testified that her U.K.-based agent Patricia Marmont “warned her that Weinstein may hit on her and that, if he did, Plaintiff should be careful about how she dealt with it because he was a powerful man.”
The agency also argued their agents such as Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane did not have any knowledge of Weinstein’s behavior until the first allegations were made public in 2017.
Representatives for CAA did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Puck’s Matt Belloni first reported the news.
