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CAA and WME are not the only Hollywood agencies axing minority assistants. On Friday afternoon, UTA fired Katrina Lopez because of an online blog she was accused of writing called “Confessions of a Hollywood Serial Dater”. Sources claim she never mentioned her workplace, nor UTA, nor the name of any other employee in the blog. But a UTA exec tells me she “chronicled personal details of a UTA employee she was dating” and she “violated numerous company policies as well as the spirit of UTA’s work environment, so she was dismissed. End of story. UTA has zero tolerance for this kind of behavior.” My sources say she is exploring legal action.
Mass Reprimands, 4 Firings At WME Over “Goodbye” Email
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Blogs, facebook, twitter, wiki, Wash Post, LA Times etc are all linked together now. So since privacy died in 2001 with the Patriot Act. What can a blogger or facebooker do. Delete their posts. It appears google keeps them cached even if you delete them and then posts them all under your name for an easy search.
So, they paid some investigator or webpage site to find out what she was saying or did they just google her?
Good luck with the Ninth Circuit in getting some money but that may be tough.
Isn’t California at will employment?
Question have they fired any non-minorities for being ” social”
How do we find this blog? She should at least be able to use the publicity from her firing into some kind of traffic push!
If you write a blog about sleeping with your boss and/or employees you’re going to get fired. The only legal action she can bring is if she didn’t write the blog. Ms. Lopez should tread very carefully. Having said that, timing is everything. UTA should know that.
As for the industry, the issue of decision makers reflecting the population at large has come up time and time again. Hollywood has pledged to make efforts. But have they? Last I checked Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, Berkeley, Dartmouth (where my sister attended) have plenty of students of color.
Apparently you have never heard of sexual harassment laws. This is not 1980. What you describe can lead to million dollar suits in any other company.
She dated a coworker then blogged about that person. In my view SHE is the one who harassed somebody sexually.
So the agencies are firing minorities, and the execs are rarely greenlight big budget flicks with minority leads. It’s like we’re going backwards. I always say, Hollywood likes to pretend like they’re so ahead of the game and are so forward thinking on politics, race, sexuality, etc yet they’re actually just all a bunch of racist, sexist, homophobes, it’s almost hilarious. If it wasn’t so sad.
thank god im white
How the hell did she have time in her day to maintain a blog?
Anyone working a major desk (network, studio, agency) who isn’t using every free moment of their day to learn is wasting the opportunity.
Scheduling, tracking, reading, coverage, expense reports, payment tracking…those things take time, are hard, and build a solid foundation on which an assistant will grow into an executive. If you have a stack of deal memos to file and you’re NOT reading them and learning how they work, you may as well not be there.
Choosing to dick around online is perfectly fine – but is no way to build a career.
Too many young assistants are hitting the workforce with expectations of immediate advancement. Facebook isn’t a right, kiddos. The assistants who put a priority on themselves will invariably fade away, minority or not, and will be eagerly replaced by next year’s graduates.
You are making the assumption that she wrote this blog on company time, and I don’t see the accusation there any more than I see the hint she was fired for race. If she didn’t mention her workplace by name or employees by name, or use the company computer, I don’t see what right the company has to interfere with her right to free speech. Not saying what she did was right and she maybe should be taken to task online, but I don’t see why that’s the prerogative of the company to take on.
As a working actor, who would expect diligence and professionalism from anyone working in an agency (hey, call me Pollyanna), I’ve got to say there is absolutely NOTHING in PanFried’s post I’d disagree with.
Playing around with your personal blog on work time? You’re NOT doing your job. Don’t let the door bang you on the arse on your way out – and good luck pulling that crap in any other field.
You’re 100% right. Making that assumption is unfair to the young woman. I don’t know her and have never worked with her.
Nikki insinuating that race played a factor is equally unfair to UTA.
The difference is that while my assumption is unfair, it’s not likely to hurt anyone. Work hard, do your job. That’s good advice.
Nikki’s recent posts of what she perceives to be rampant industry-wide racism, on the other hand, could make it harder for people who are legitimately discriminated against to have their cases taken seriously.
Because, yeah – discrimination is alive and well – but making random and unwarranted accusations don’t increase awareness, they only increase skepticism.
Personally, I think Nikki owes UTA and Katrina an apology.
I hope Katrina lands a new job somewhere and learns from this experience.
Amen PanFried! Nicely said.
I assume the things she was blogging about took more time out of her
day than the blog.
There’s nothing in the text above to remotely suggest that this woman was fired for being Latina. How are you people making this jump of logic? Isn’t seeing racism in everything actually a racist thing to do? I think so.
People who actually work in the industry know what the story is regarding minorities in this town.
It’s not playing the race card. It’s a simple fact. The thing that is hilarious is that Hollywood loves to pat itself on the back for being so progressive when it reality it’s backwards compared to other businesses.
Why can’t she blog about her personal life? This sounds really weird and over the top. Big Brother to the max. Sorry Katrina. People in this town are really paranoid.
I think the terms “assistant” and “dating” should be taken with a grain of salt here…
An agency with ethics? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am i the only person who is interested in a) finding this site, and b) seeing if she’s hot … ???
This has to stop.
I am getting sick of this racist bullshit. Call racism where there actually is CAUSE for it. That instance is not here.
She fucked up. Not only should she not have had time to work on that blog at work, but she VIOLATED POLICY. It’s that simple
The only way minorities are going to get their fair share is if they aren’t treated like the need goddamn HANDOUTS. Really. I’m sick of it
Love,
Black Writer That Works Plenty
Wow, black writer you are very lucky. I doubt you are Shonda Rhimes so give me a break.
I don’t know what this case in particular but to say black writers are asking for handouts is bullshit.
Everyone in town KNOWS in features white men can write women, blacks, latins, gays, robots, anything but black writers can only write black people. Given how few movies are made with black people (Will Smith and Denzel are not “urban” of course and Tyler writes his own material), you can see why this is not a good situation.
I heart you for speaking up. Huge.
Isn’t it possible the person she was “dating” was married (have seen this happen at agencies) and this put a more valuable (agent, partner, exec) employee in a compromising position? Or maybe she was just a jerk and nobody liked her (temperament is color-blind)…
as a latino, i will be the first to say that if i engaged in this type of behavior i would surely deserve to be fired.
Ludicrous. I like brsasst too. But this is just ridiculous. Nationality, color, religion had nothing to do with it. She was fired because they were able to fire her. Point blank.
Thank you.
Could be racism. Got to wonder whether others have been fired for similar situations? But more likely, she was “dating” and screwed over the wrong supervisor. In any case, if she didn’t violate the clauses of her NDA then they’ll be in for a fight.
UTA should be ashamed. What a bunch of uptight assholes. Ohhhh, they can’t control someone’s freedom of speech????? Hmmmmm….stinks of communism….ever heard of amendment rights? Fucking assholes. Fuck you, UTA.
It’s amazing that, almost without fail, those who trumpet freedom of speech have no idea what it protects.
Thats what UTA stands for didn’t you know – UpTight Assholes.
That and UnTalented ‘Same’
While the race issue is interesting, as I said above, she probably has a sexual harassment case. Retaliatory firings like this as are BIG no-no.
What idiot executive thought he or she could get away with this firing, and then, admit that they fired her due to the relationship? Why don’t they just open up UTA’s bank accounts now.
I think you’re reading a lot into this here. You can absolutely get fired for having an inappropriate relationship with a colleague and not have a sexual harassment claim, and it’s perfectly legitimate grounds for termination. A sexual harassment suit would arise from her being terminated because she tried to break the relationship off and was told “keep sleeping with me or you’ll get fired.” Sexual harassment is not “you’re mixing business and pleasure in an inappropriate way, detrimental to the company, and we can’t have that, so you’re fired.”
it doesn’t say it was a retaliatory firing… perhaps the person she was “dating” was another assistant, and it is against company policy for inner office dating? Many companies have policies against such things, because they don’t want to risk sexual harassment lawsuits. The ones that “allow”, require the employees to sign affidavits that they are dating of their own free will, to remove the company from any legal issues… and if the disclosure is NOT made, is grounds for dismissal.
she would have been fired… if she was white. everyone shut the fuck up.
If she didn’t name names or name companies, then has she violated any privacy agreement? Curious to know why the peeps posting that race had nothing to do with the firing didn’t reveal their race?
I’m white…. so what? Does this mean I don’t get to be critical of the writers of this post?…speaking of racism…white people can’t have an opinion? Why? Oh, yeah, being white means you have to shut up….
Forget it. Not gonna happen. Prove racism here or shut up.
Those who think this post implies anything racist need to examine themselves. There is a mental illness here : A perpetual need to be a victim and avoid personal responsibility.
According to THIS POST she broke the rules. Unless evidence emerges that this was race based going directly to race is stupid and insulting to millions who fought for equality and were REAL victims of racism. Far be it for someone to remember REAL victims. No, we need to make wild accusations and debase people for sport.
Guess what: it no longer works. Crying wolf means we stop caring.
I support diversity and I think it is a shame that there are so few minorities working in Hollywood, but come on! ANYBODY would be fired for blogging about sexual relations with a coworker. I know a few white males who have been fired for blogging about much less.
PLEASE STOP IT! Nothing here suggests racism. The screams of ‘racism’ have become idiotic and pathetic. People who scream it all the time are like UFO abductees at this point. Deluded psychos. So this employee gets a free pass to break company rules because she’s a latina? Uh…no.
Get OVER IT.
So, I did a Google search and couldn’t find her blog anywhere. So my question is, if it can’t be easily found by the curious general public, how did the higher ups at UTA find it?
Truth: Someone in the company found out about it and reported it. Back when this article was written on Deadline Hollywood our blog was a small, more private project. It was practically impossible to find at that point in time. How things have changed..
UGH! This has NOTHING to do with race. This kind of stuff drives me NUTS. Yah, let her try and prove this – go for it. You just DO NOT do this kind of stuff.
Headline:
‘BACK-UP PLAN’ BOMBS BECAUSE JENNIFER’S LAST NAME IS LOPEZ
Ridiculous, huh? C’mon, Nikki…