This Week in Gossip #21
Disney and Amy and JLo and The Rock and That Accused Wife-Beating Creep…
1. Okay, So Here’s How I Think That Sydney Sweeney-Johnny Depp Story Came to Be…
Jeff Sneider, an independent reporter who used to work for the trades, went viral when he claimed that Sydney Sweeney had signed onto a new film with director Marc Webb's supernatural thriller Day Drinker. Her reported co-star? Accused wife-beater Johnny Depp. It made a lot of people very confused, as you can imagine. Sweeney's team then denied the claims in a statement to Discussing Film, a Twitter-based entertainment account that mostly collates and shares other people's work (frequently without giving full credit, which they need to stop.) Sweeney herself then tweeted, 'Woke up to ✨rumors✨ anyways go see @ImmaculateMovie in theaters this weekend!' Sneider quote-tweeted this by claiming it was a 'non-denial' and has gone a bit over-the-top in insisting the story was true and that Sweeney's team are liars.
The story was clearly weird, made all the barmier by Jeff Sneider’s total lack of chill at being called out for a false story. But was it false?! Hear me out. Sneider is a jerk, a noted nightmare to work with who has blown away numerous major opportunities with big publications. Is he a liar, though? No. He’s a fool and a jackass but he’s not one for outright fake stories. Yes, he’s an “independent” journalist now, meaning he’s not beholden to industry demands, but tearing through the shreds of your legitimacy is not on the table for him. He’s gone on more than a few Twitter rants since Sweeney’s team and the actress herself denied the report, mostly hinting at the claim he has direct contacts to them or people around them.
It's not uncommon for a publicist or agent to use the press to trial balloon a story. Will a piece of casting go over well with the intended public? It’s a good way to find out. It’s also a good way to play ball with a studio, especially if you’re negotiating for a bigger payday. The trades are not in the business of rocking the boat with Hollywood’s major players. They want to keep that symbiotic relationship intact. Sure, Sneider isn’t in the midst of that world now and doesn’t have to play by its rules but he’s still useful to some.
But was it Sweeney’s team or Depp’s that floated the story? Either option makes sense, right? Sweeney is a savvy actress who has made a name for herself not just for her talents but her candid approach to picking projects that will bolster her image and industry clout. It would be entirely feasible for her to get her agent to float a project to a journalist, check out the Twitter responses, and make a decision from there.
But it’s Depp and his cultists who have the more terrifying stranglehold on media misinformation. It may take a few more years for the world to fully understand how it destroyed Amber Heard but we are mercifully seeing the first strands of backlash to Depp’s abuses of the legal system and use of online trolling to smear his ex-wife. A recent podcast, Who Trolled Amber?, delved into this issue and Depp’s ties to Saudi Arabia (what a kind Southern gentleman, right?) He won this battle with dirty tactics so why wouldn’t he try to get his name out there to pretend he’s still a Hollywood darling that the industry is desperate to work with once more?
Hollywood, of course, doesn’t care about accused wife-beaters engaging in gross campaigns to ruin women’s lives. They do, however, care about losers who are financial liabilities, and Depp is not a safe investment in that regard. His career was in freefall long before Amber entered the scene. There was a period where he was lambasted as a parody of himself whose films routinely lost money due to their lavish expense. That’s one thing that fascinated me about this story: who in their right minds is employing this smelly creep who is constantly late to set, uses an ear-piece rather than learn his lines, and who hasn’t given a truly great performance since GWB was in the White House? And if he really was being brought in for this movie, why would Sweeney ever consider it good business to sign up?
Some people still want Depp to be back in the game, back to the top of the pile as the king of Hollywood. Those people are largely outnumbered by a silent majority in the business who have no interest in a has-been with a shoddy recent track record and a mouth full of rotten teeth. If this was another attempt by Depp’s bots and lackies to grease the wheels of an American comeback, it stumbled. It’s not as though he’s totally unemployable. I recently got emails from publicists about a French film he did, Jeanne du Barry, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. He also directed a film and Al Pacino is starring in it. Again, it’s impossible to truly cancel someone with a lot of money (and let’s not even get into whether or not this f*cker has any liquidity to his name.)
Still, keep an eye out for more of Depp’s team trying to make wife-beating fetch happen. Monsters never truly go away, even ones who smell that bad.
2. “Activist Investor” and Notorious A-Hole Nelson Peltz Loses Battle in Disney Boardroom
I hate to give Disney credit in any way for its corporate decisions but I must admit to being far more relieved than expected by this news. The Walt Disney Company's latest shareholders meeting led to the re-election of all 12 of the company-backed board members, including CEO Bob Iger. They also rejected an effort bt activist investor, billionaire, and known a-hole Nelson Peltz to get a seat on the board of directors. Peltz, who heads investment firm Trian Partners, failed to get enough votes in his favor to clinch a board seat. Variety reports that the 12 directors won reelection by a "substantial margin" over their opponents. Iger won re-election with 94% of the votes cast in his favor. Peltz, by comparison, only got 31%.
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