Elon Musk stirred up trouble with the Walt Disney Company again on Tuesday when he agreed to fund a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by “Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano.
“Please let us know if you would like to join the lawsuit against Disney,” Mr. Musk, apparently looking for other plaintiffs, wrote in a post on X, which he bought in 2022.
Disney expelled Ms. Carano, a former mixed martial artist, from “The Mandalorian” in 2021 after she promoted baseless conspiracy theories and right-wing positions in a series of social media posts, some of which were viewed as homophobic and anti-Semitic became. Her character was written out of the series. Lucasfilm, the Disney division that produces “The Mandalorian,” said in a statement at the time that Ms. Carano’s “social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
United Talent Agency also dropped Ms. Carano.
Ms. Carano’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in California, seeks a court order forcing Disney and Lucasfilm to reinstate her “Mandalorian” character in episodes and recast her in the role. (She was hired as a “guest actress” and was paid $25,000 for each episode in which she appeared.) She is also suing for punitive damages.
Since the other major advertisers Disney and The Advertisers took action after Mr. Musk promoted an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. He seemed particularly upset by Disney’s decision to stop advertising; Other Hollywood companies in particular followed Disney’s example.
Included in internal documents
Disney spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment for this article on Tuesday.
In late November, Mr. Musk verbally attacked Mr. Iger on stage at the New York Times DealBook Summit. (The billionaire cited Disney’s ad placement, which Mr. Musk called “blackmail,” and used a profanity-laced way to tell Mr. Iger to go away.) In December, after Disney stood firm, Mr. Musk wrote on X that Mr. Iger was “fired.” “Walt Disney is turning in his grave because of what Bob did to his company.”
More recently, Mr. Musk has cheered on Nelson Peltz, an activist investor who is waging a proxy war with the disgruntled former Marvel Entertainment chief executive over two seats on Disney’s board.
“Brutal track record,” Mr. Musk wrote on Jan. 18 on “The @Disney Board has served shareholders incredibly poorly!”
Disney has vigorously defended its board and Mr. Iger’s track record. Mr. Iger, who came out of retirement in 2022 to take the reins at Disney, has, among other things, dramatically cut costs, accelerated growth at Disney parks and reorganized the company to improve film quality.
When asked about the extent of Mr. Peltz’s relationship with Mr. Musk, a spokesman for Trian had no immediate comment. Mr. Peltz and Mr. Musk were photographed together on Saturday at the Los Angeles premiere of “Lola,” an independent film that one of Mr. Peltz’s daughters wrote, directed and starred in.
Joe Benarroch, Head of Harassment or Discrimination Operations.”
Last year, Mr. Musk pledged to fund legal action for X users who said they had been discriminated against in the workplace because of their posts on the platform. At the time, he said he would “also take action against the company boards.”
Ms. Carano’s statement of claim states: “Recently, in a galaxy not so far away, the defendants made it clear that in their empire only orthodoxy in thought, speech or action was acceptable and that those who dared to ask questions , didn’t do it.” Full compliance would not be tolerated. And that’s how it was with Carano.”
Lauren Hirsch and Ryan Mac contributed reporting.
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2024-02-07 00:54:34
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