“Inside Out 2” was a rare win for Disney at the box office. The company has lost so much money these last few years, with flop after flop being released, that the success of “Inside Out 2” must have felt like major relief. They also have “Deadpool & Wolverine” coming up, and that one could match or even eclipse those numbers.
With that said, I’m sure Disney isn’t be happy about this latest development.
A provocateur, going by the name of James O’Keefe, unleashed his latest undercover operation, this time targeting Disney’s race-based hiring practices. The video that O’Keefe published is WILD, and I do feel bad for the targeted individual.
O’Keefe sent over one of his spies, on a mock date with Disney Senior VP Michael Giordano, who can be seen on camera telling the secret female reporter that Disney purposely doesn’t hire white male writers, and actors solely on the basis of the color of their skin.
Nobody else is going to tell you this, but they’re not considering any white males for the job…there’s no way we’re hiring a white male.
“The reporter suggests that this was an ‘unspoken’ agreement, but Giordano shared that it’s actually been said in front of him. However, he said that they are careful how they message those things to outside parties, like talent agents.”
I’m hearing that Giordano, who just deleted his LinkedIn account, has been told by Disney to take a “leave of absence” after this video came out. I’d be shocked if they don’t just quietly fire him for these comments.
One key moment in the video has Giordano telling the undercover reporter that one black candidate was turned down at Disney for not appearing sufficiently black — they were “half black,” he adds. Giordano’s comments have gone viral. It helps that Elon Musk shared the clip with his 188 million x followers.
This isn’t surprising. Christian Toto led me to a Film Threat investigative report which had former and current Disney employees spilling the beans about the company’s plans to chase away veteran animators in favor of its “diversity-at-all-costs” plan. The term, “Pale and Male is Stale” became an unofficial catchphrase behind the scenes, according to Film Threat.
This has me wondering, is Disney sacrificing talent over skin color? That’s what Film Threat and Giordano are implying. When it comes to product quality, this approach seems a tad misguided, no? For any given project, you want to have the best possible creatives involved with the film, and not quota hires. Hey, that’s just me, I’m not at all involved with Disney, they can do what they want, it’s just a minor suggestion.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.