Variety's Recent #MeToo Hit Piece on Francis Ford Coppola Debunked As “A Sham"

Last Friday, Variety tried to reignite controversy around Francis Ford Coppola’s behavior on the set of “Megalopolis.”

The trade posted “exclusive” videos of Coppola trying to kiss a female extra on the set of his ambitious sci-fi epic, the footage was taken during shooting of the bacchanalian nightclub scene. However, a mere four days since the story was published, it turns out that there’s more to it than what was originally reported.

Deadline has, smartly, gone out to look for the “victim” in the video, and found the actress. Her name is Rayna Menz and she’s “disgusted” by Variety’s insinuations that Coppola behaved unprofessionally towards her.

“He did nothing to make me or for that matter anyone on set feel uncomfortable,” Menz told Deadline. “I felt disgusted, I was blindsided by it because it was a closed set. That someone had video of that is just ridiculous and super unprofessional. It’s gross because he only ever spoke about how wonderful his wife is. His wife was on set with us, most days. It feels gross, seeing that video and they way they were trying to convey a message. Just gross.”

“It was all false,” Menz said. “In fact, I was the one who asked him to dance. I asked him to dance, in front of everybody else. That’s why it’s so funny that this story came out. He even said, something along the lines of — mind you it was over a year ago so this is not a proper quote — but he said something like, ‘I’m a gentleman, and I would never say no to a lady.’ And then we waltzed, to club music.

He was nothing but professional, a gentleman, he was like this cute Italian grandfather, running around  the set,” she said. “It was just so much fun. He’s a nice generous person.”

It’s honestly perplexing why so much of the media has been trying to pile up the attacks on the filmmaker, most of which were utterly bogus to begin with. Is click bait culture to blame or is there a more insidious agenda at work here?

It should be noted that many of the outlets who have participated in the smearing of Coppola — THR, Variety, The Guardian —have been used in the past as studio mouthpieces, and this sort of reporting is sometimes designed for a specific purpose. They’ve most definitely succeeded in tarnishing Coppola’s reputation, hitting him at all angles.

Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. feels the same …

One wonders why journos are working so hard trying to tarnish one of the greatest living filmmakers America has produced, at a time when he is grieving the loss of his wife. Some would think it a good time to celebrate Coppola for his bold gamble to put $120 million of his own money into “Megalopolis”. Love or hate the film, but in this moment of corporate cowardice, Coppola should get some credit for seeing through a movie he spent decades thinking about, whose message he hopes will be appreciated long after he passes away. When he does pass, all these naysaying trades will provide reverential coverage. Why wait to treat him with some dignity and respect?

Back in May, I had written about a chat that I had with a producer friend who claimed that there was definitely a “conspiracy” out there to destroy Coppola. The steady stream of hit pieces against Coppola surely hinted at something insidious. Maybe, the powers that be are angry that he’s gone out of his way to break the “algorithm” in Hollywood.

This is nothing more of a smear campaign from frightened studios who don't appreciate his threat to their business models. It’s a conspiracy to destroy him.

It’s no big secret that Coppola bypassed the Hollywood studio system and entirely self-financed “Megalopolis” out of his own pocket. Sure, the film might not be an Oscar player, by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe the Hollywood system feels threatened by the optics around his $120M gamble.

Whether it’s a conspiracy, or just another example of modern-day journalism, the constant attacks against Coppola must surely be taking a toll on the filmmaker. Fleming writes that the filmmaker found out about the Variety story as he was on his way to join his children and relatives as they were gathering for a family memorial for his late wife Eleanor Coppola.