Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A HOLLYWOOD STUDIO has cut ties with film director Brett Ratner after six women — including actor Olivia Munn — accused him of sexual misconduct in a Los Angeles Times report published yesterday.
Playboy Enterprises quickly distanced itself from Ratner as his lawyer denied the allegations. Warner Bros has also reportedly severed ties with the director.
Ratner is the latest prominent Hollywood figure accused of sexual harassment. Yesterday Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman apologised for allegedly sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern in 1985.
Munn complained about Ratner’s on-set behaviour, alleging that while visiting the production of After the Sunset in 2004 he masturbated in front of her in his trailer. Munn described the incident, without naming Ratner, in a 2010 collection of essays.
Ratner’s lawyer issued a statement yesterday in which he said the director “vehemently denies the outrageous derogatory allegations” and is “confident that his name will be cleared once the current media frenzy dies down and people can objectively evaluate the nature of these claims”.
Ratner directed the Rush Hour film series, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand and Tower Heist.
Warner Bros
According to a source, Ratner will no longer occupy rented office space on Warner Bros’ lot in Burbank, California. He has also been removed from the adaptation of Donna Tartt’s novel The Goldfinch, which he had previously been set to produce.
Ratner’s production company RatPac Entertainment has a financing deal with the studio that will continue until March 2018. The $450-million (about €386 million) co-financing agreement was signed in 2013 and it remains unclear whether it will be renewed.
It has encompassed much of Warner Bros’s output, including Wonder Woman, It and Justice League. A Warner Bros representative declined to comment.
Ratner had previously said he would step away from work with Warner Bros for an unspecified amount of time. “I don’t want to have any possible negative impact to the studio until these personal issues are resolved,” he said.
Playboy Enterprises has shelved any of its projects that involved Ratner, including a biopic of Hugh Hefner which was due to star Jared Leto. “We are deeply troubled to learn about the accusations against Brett Ratner. We find this kind of behaviour completely unacceptable,” a statement read.
Ratner and Hoffman are the latest Hollywood figures to face allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct — a list that now includes producer Harvey Weinstein, writer-director James Toback, and actors Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Piven.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Good to see a reporter standing up to Obama et all – and his wish to curtail free journalism .
He should be supported .
Obama waging war on Journalists – the last thing US govt .wants is freedom of Press .
Aristotle tells us that tyrants hunt down those who oppose their power- and Obama is such a tyrant – as have most of US Presidents – and getting worse .
Who downvotes this…….it’s spot on.
If there’s no freedom of press, there’s no alternative opinion.
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. [...] And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment — the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution — not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants” — but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.
John F Kennedy
Passing flawed plans to Iran is the least bad thing they have been accused of
Great courage shown, fair play.
The New York Times is a paper which has colluded with the US Government numerous times in oder to appease it. They have previously withheld knowledge from the public on drone strikes at the request of the US Government. While objectivity can never be truly attained in newspapers it should be strived for.
A surprise heart attack our car crash on the way for this man !!
Writing long articles criticising the whistleblowers and then defending his right to keep his sources secret. His sources are no different to the whistleblowers. The standards and hypocrisy of some journalists is nauseating.
And the hypocrisy of the CIA?
While I don’t trust NYT generally, I’d certainly defend their right to resist a request (/threat) from the shameful, clandestine and murdurous CIA, which goes against their constitutionally enshrined journalistic privilege.
Could u give links to support your accusations ??
Was that question for me or Ryleigh, Jim? I’m presuming the latter.
Obviously, there are plenty of links to support my accusations! There are also admissions.
Yeah it’s been more or less proved they are Criminals
In
Action
for Rryleigh – actually your comment was not visible when I wrote
One ‘r’ only.
Naomi Wolff wrote and spoke about all of this a few years back.
I think she said that the final straw for her would be when the government started locking up journalists.
Obama is the toothy, smiling, affable version of his dipshit Cheney-front predecessor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H20CoqyoqtI
The NY Times is an anti-Irish news paper
It is a well known organisation,with very very dodgy people working for it.The point I am making is that regardless of their activities exposing them via a secret source that could be an agent of a foreign agency engaged in a counter espionage mission. The journalist has neither the training or the expertise to handle the information via a public forum…the media. Obscure ,obfuscate and distort information in a logical and rational way is what counter intelligence does to obtain it’s goals.
have your say