Manson in $24M Tussle

05/19/1999 at 12:00 AM EDT

Shock rocker Marilyn Manson is being sued by the executive editor of Spin magazine, who has filed a $24 million lawsuit charging that two bodyguards for Manson beat him after the cross-dressing star threatened him. Craig Marks, 37, said he was slammed against a wall and choked in a dressing room backstage at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom following Manson's Nov. 23 heavy metal rock performance. Just before the assault, Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, warned that "he could kill Marks, his whole family and everyone he knew," according to papers Marks filed Monday in Manhattan's State Supreme Court. After the bodyguards released him, Manson told Marks, "That's what you get when you disrespect me," the court papers say. Manson's lawyer, Paul Cambria, denied that the attack happened. Marks suggested that the attack stemmed from his magazine's decision to drop its tentative plan to feature Manson on Spin's January 1999 cover.