Composer Nomi Abadi is suing “Batman” and “Beetlejuice” composer Danny Elfman for defamation over statements he made to Rolling Stone last year. These statements were part of an investigative piece about a settlement Elfman made with Abadi, his one-time protégé, after she accused him of repeated sexual harassment and misconduct.
Abadi’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Elfman “peddled appalling lies for publication to Rolling Stone about Nomi.” The alleged lies include statements from Elfman and his representatives claiming he did not engage in sexual misconduct toward Abadi, never masturbated in front of her, never touched her inappropriately, and “never placed his bodily fluids in a martini glass he presented to Nomi,” as she alleged. The complaint also criticizes Elfman and his team for portraying Abadi as “a scorned woman seeking revenge and money to make Elfman pay for having rejected her.” Abadi asserts that Elfman suggested she “invited Elfman’s misconduct, including by requesting that he take nude pictures of her.” As a result, “Nomi’s career ambitions [were left] in tatters.”
The complaint, obtained by Variety, marks the latest action by Abadi, a classically trained pianist and rising composer, against Elfman, a prolific composer in film and television and founder of the pioneering New Wave band Oingo Boingo. Attorney Eric George, who represented Amber Heard in her early legal battles with ex-husband Johnny Depp, filed the suit on behalf of Abadi. Both George and Abadi declined to comment.
Elfman is represented by Camille Vasquez, who gained prominence by helping Depp largely prevail over Heard in a televised 2022 Virginia trial. Representatives for Elfman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Elfman’s statements were part of a Rolling Stone story published in July 2023. That story revealed that Elfman had entered into a previously unreported settlement and nondisclosure agreement with Abadi after she accused him of multiple instances of sexual harassment and misconduct from 2015 to 2016. Through an attorney, Elfman denied those allegations. For the story, Rolling Stone reported that it unearthed a Los Angeles Police Department report filed by Abadi, in which she alleged that Elfman exposed himself and masturbated multiple times in front of her without her consent. Rolling Stone also reported that Abadi was suing Elfman for failing to pay the full settlement amount of $830,000. Wednesday’s suit marks her second against Elfman filed in open court.
In October, a second woman accused Elfman of sexual misconduct in a lawsuit she filed as Jane Doe XX. The woman claimed in the complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, that Elfman exposed himself to her frequently during meetings from 1997 to 2002. That suit described the woman as a 21-year-old “protégé” of Elfman’s when the alleged incidents began. Elfman’s attorney called Jane Doe XX’s allegations “baseless and absurd.”
In the suit filed Wednesday, Abadi contends that “Elfman coerced her into [posing nude]” when he was 61 and she was 26 and “masturbated in front of Nomi, afterwards apologizing to her and promising not to do so again.” The complaint also says that the Grammy and Emmy winner “inappropriately touched Nomi, afterwards apologizing to Nomi, and later threatened her in an attempt to keep his misdeeds a secret.” In the most bizarre subplot, Abadi’s suit insists that Elfman’s reps falsely denied that he put his semen in a martini glass and falsely claimed that Abadi knew it was not semen. Elfman’s reps claimed in the Rolling Stone story that the glass was filled with the moisturizing cream Cetaphil and that Abadi knew it was a “stupid photo prop.” “In fact, Elfman had admitted to Nomi that he was presenting her with a glass full of semen,” the suit says.
Elfman’s narrative spread widely. “At least 20 high-profile publications repeated his and his representatives’ defamations of Nomi,” the suit adds. As a result, job opportunities allegedly dried up for the fledgling composer, whose credits include a series of shorts and the 2023 film “Sebastian.” “Nomi has suffered PTSD, anxiety, depression, nervousness, and fear for her personal safety in the wake of online harassment spurred by these defamations,” the complaint says.
The power imbalance between the two appears significant. Elfman, a four-time Oscar nominee represented by Kraft-Engel Management, remains one of the most sought-after composers in the industry. He created the instantly recognizable theme for “The Simpsons” and more recently Netflix’s “Wednesday.” Elfman, 71, is a frequent collaborator of Tim Burton’s, having scored most of his films, including 1989’s “Batman” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” He has also worked with directors like Noah Baumbach and Sam Raimi. His upcoming films include Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Furthermore, the composing industry is tight-knit, male-dominated, and has no union. Mentorships are essential for young composers trying to find a foothold.
But the mentor-mentee relationship can be fraught with landmines. Abadi’s suit claims that Elfman frequently disrobed in what should have been a professional setting and “called nudity an important part of his creative process and insisted that a nude environment did not mean a sexual environment.” The complaint continues: “On more than one occasion, Defendant Elfman scolded Nomi for her beliefs that nudity is inappropriate in a studio environment and insisted that changing her conservative views about nudity would benefit her artistically.”
Elfman also “began to regularly answer the door to his studio in his robe with the front of the robe open, exposing his genitals,” the suit alleges, and showed his acolyte a gallery of images on his laptop of Elfman naked with naked women, referring to them as his “special friends.” “Defendant Elfman was eager to prove to Nomi that other women had been around him naked ‘artistically’ and ‘non-sexually’ and strongly encouraged that Nomi do a similar photoshoot with him,” the suit claims. “Nomi told Mr. Elfman that she felt the photos were stylistically appealing but felt uncomfortable with the idea. Defendant Elfman became irate with Nomi, once again chiding her for her modesty.”
During a group trip to Paris, Elfman persuaded Abadi to take part in a photo shoot that he dubbed artistic and non-sexual. But, according to the suit, he “suddenly grabbed his penis with one hand and grabbed Nomi by the wrist with his other hand, jamming her hand onto her genitals,” the complaint says. “Nomi was blindsided and terrified. Defendant Elfman vigorously began masturbating and instructed Nomi to do the same to herself. Nomi was terrified, frozen, and pretended to appease Defendant Elfman. Relieved that the moment was over within seconds, Nomi was stunned and shaken. Nomi recalls Defendant Elfman staring at her wide-eyed, as if surprised. Defendant Elfman then took the memory card out of Nomi’s camera and handed the empty camera back to Nomi, later saving the pictures onto his computer. Defendant Elfman instructed Nomi ‘not to tell anyone about Paris’ or she would be ‘dead meat.'”
During one of their final encounters in 2016, a political conversation devolved into a shocking Elfman meltdown, the suit alleges. When Abadi expressed her fear of presidential candidate Donald Trump and her support for candidate Bernie Sanders, Elfman responded, “We can’t have a Jew running our country,” according to the suit. (Elfman is Jewish.) “The hours-long argument ended with Defendant Elfman screaming at Nomi, shaking his fist at her, red in the face,” the suit continues. “Nomi, already aware of Defendant Elfman’s temper, was terrified but remained calm. Defendant Elfman raised his voice at Nomi and screamed, ‘Fuck you and fuck your whole generation,’ at which point Nomi left his studio.”
Back in February 2023, Abadi spoke at a pre-Grammys press conference and noted that, although she is a Recording Academy member, she didn’t vote because the Grammy nominees list included “abusers.” Elfman was nominated for a Grammy for Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Other women who spoke at the press conference decried the use of NDAs, noting that they are used by powerful men to silence women in the music industry.
Meanwhile, the matter of the LAPD report, which is not mentioned in today’s lawsuit, poses additional questions that remain unanswered. In its story last year, Rolling Stone cited details from the report but noted that an LAPD representative “was unable to locate the report, and that the department has ‘no information to provide and no statement.'”
Composer Nomi Abadi sued Elfman over statements he made to Rolling Stone last year in an article detailing allegations that he exposed himself and masturbated in front of her without permission. Film composer Danny Elfman was sued for defamation on Wednesday over statements he made to Rolling Stone last year in an article detailing sexual harassment allegations leveled against him and a subsequent settlement and nondisclosure agreement to keep the claims private.
Los Angeles composer Nomi Abadi’s defamation suit — filed in Los Angeles — comes a year after a Rolling Stone investigation first revealed her allegations that Elfman exposed himself and sexually harassed her in 2016, before she and Elfman entered into an $830,000 settlement and NDA a year later. Abadi filed a breach of contract lawsuit regarding the settlement last July, alleging that Elfman had missed several payments. The matter was placed into arbitration late last year. In a filing earlier this month, lawyers for Abadi claimed the arbitration had not yet been scheduled, despite several attempts to work with Elfman’s lawyers to find a date.
“Defendant Danny Elfman peddled appalling lies for publication to Rolling Stone about Nomi, who had previously in an earlier lawsuit truthfully relayed facts corroborating his penchant to sexually abuse women,” the suit said. “Why? As part of a harebrained ‘zero sum’ scheme by Elfman to prop up his checkered reputation by destroying Nomi’s credibility.” (A lawyer for Elfman did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.)
Rolling Stone’s initial investigation included allegations that Abadi had confided in multiple friends as well as detailed in a police report. She alleged that Elfman had exposed himself and masturbated in front of Abadi multiple times, that he took naked photos of her in a hotel room in Paris, and that he presented her a martini glass filled with what she said Elfman told her was semen. In an extensive statement at the time, Elfman denied ever exposing himself and masturbating in front of Abadi, denied that he ever said the glass contained semen, and claimed that Abadi was the one who requested the photo shoot.
In his statement, Elfman said that he “allowed someone to get close to me without knowing that I was her ‘childhood crush’ and that her intention was to break up my marriage and replace my wife. When this person realized that I wanted distance from her, she made it clear that I would pay for having rejected her,” he said.
In the defamation suit, Abadi alleges Elfman defamed her not only by denying all the various misconduct allegations but also for falsely portraying her as “a failed temptress who lied about him for reasons of revenge and greed.”
Abadi also alleges that Elfman defamed her by stating that she had pushed for the nude photos. In a response last year, a rep for Elfman said Abadi “disrobed almost immediately without any encouragement.” In the suit, Abadi claimed that Elfman “coerced” her into taking the pictures. In the complaint, Abadi also alleges that during the photo shoot, while Elfman had his hand on his penis, he “grabbed Nomi by the wrist with his other hand, jamming her hand onto her genitals,” and instructed her to masturbate as well.
“Nomi was terrified, frozen, and pretended to appease Defendant Elfman,” the suit said, adding that Elfman “instructed Nomi ‘not to tell anyone about Paris’ or she would be ‘dead meat.'” The suit further alleged that Elfman later apologized and that he “blamed it on losing control, stating that ‘something had gotten into him.'”
Abadi’s final defamation claim revolves around the alleged incident with the martini glass. Elfman first sent a photo of the glass to Abadi in an email, captioning it as a “mystery pik [sic] to pique your ‘imagination.'” Per the police report Abadi filed, she alleged that Elfman told her the glass was filled with semen. A representative for Elfman said at the time that the glass actually contained the skin care product Cetaphil. Abadi alleges that Elfman defamed her not only by denying that the martini glass was filled with semen but by further claiming that Abadi knew it wasn’t.
Abadi’s suit includes an extensive description of her alleged history with Elfman, with Abadi alleging that when she was presented with the glass, she “sat in silence, terrified, gagging from the putrid smell coming from the glass of white substance.”
Abadi is asking for unspecified monetary and punitive damages to be determined by the court.
“Defendant Elfman lied about Nomi, branding her as a scorned woman attempting to break up his marriage, and as someone who initiated nude photography,” the suit says. “As a result of Elfman and his representatives’ defamations, Nomi has suffered humiliation, both personally and professionally, within their shared composing industry, and online, and harm to her professional reputation and her occupation as a composer, musician, and educator.”
Abadi isn’t the only woman who has come forward with misconduct claims against Elfman. Three months after Rolling Stone’s initial story, a second anonymous woman came forward with similar sexual harassment claims of her own. “It’s important to this Jane Doe that Nomi knows she’s not alone anymore, that what was done to her by Elfman mirrors in so many ways what was done to Nomi,” Attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents both Abadi and the anonymous woman, said at the time. Elfman denied those allegations as well, saying the suit was filed “for the improper purpose of embarrassing Mr. Elfman and extorting settlement money.”
Source: Variety, Rolling Stone
