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I’ve confirmed that the actress has axed her manager of 8 years Jason Weinberg, the founding partner of Untitled Entertainment whom she thanked in her 2005 speech for winning the Best Actress Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. The firing was first reported today by the UK’s The Independent On Sunday newspaper. It writes that Swank also is removing CAA agents Amie Yavor and Josh Lieberman from her team and is upset with the tenpercentery’s Lauren Hale as well. But the paper says Swank is not exiting CAA where her partner of five years, John Campisi, is an agent. So what’s the reason? The horrible publicity which Swank received after human rights organizations outed that she’d accepted a fat fee to walk the Red Carpet and make a speech and give greetings to Chechnya’s tyrannical president Ramzan Kadyrov at his birthday party earlier this month even though he’s been linked to brutal abuses. ”There’s a world of s–t going down at CAA over it…,” a knowledgeable source emails me. It sure seems that a lot of people exercised terrible judgment, first and foremost among them Swank herself. Read the entire backstory from The Independent‘s Los Angeles corespondent Guy Adams here.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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That’s right Hilary, blame everyone else but yourself. Take no responsibility for your own actions while accepting money from someone you dont even bother to check into yourself. I mean all she had to do was look him up in Wikipedia and it’s all there. You’re and adult Hilary and firing the people loyal to you is not going to make anyone believe you are more sorry, it just makes you more pathetic. The person I feel most sorry for us her poor shlub of a boyfriend who has to deal with that nightmare of a person in the first place and now this headache with his own colleagues. Yikes.
Easy solution: Swank admits that she screwed up and that she is going to donate all the proceeds to charity. Maybe even donate double what she got–that’s the only way to save her career.
How do you fuck up the career of a twice-Oscar-winning actress?
by being one of the cheapest, petty-est actors ever to work with. she pissed off a lot of people in Hollywood.
The person who accepts responsibility is always nobler than the person who blames everyone else. Character Development 101.
Well, she was warned publicly and there were several other stars, of the same caliber as her, that turned it down the instant the warning came in. I’m sure she’s not making the same money as Reese Witherspoon for dreadful romantic comedies, but she sure isn’t poor. I guess someone has to be blamed for this, but hopefully she is also taking a shred of responsibility.
Definitely a career killing move for Hillary I can’t see the Academy ever honoring her work again. As for needing the money. To go this low as to take it from a buture of people that’s just pathetic. The way this business is going save your big paychecks when you get them cause it ain’t going to last.
I’ve got news for her- it pretty much did go unnoticed. No one gives a shit about her anymore. Her career was in the shitter very soon after Boys Don’t Cry and she miraculously was able to have it resurrected by Million Dollar Baby, only to see it crash and burn once again immediately after winning her second inexplicable Oscar. She’s a marginally talented actress at best. At worst, she’s nails on a chalkboard.
and if she would have just said, “I messed up” instead of trying to blame everyone around her, this would be forgotten. but she didn’t because she has such a chip on her shoulder.
Jon Stewart said it so well last week on his show “It’s like the old joke-’Will you sleep with me for a million dollars?’- ‘of course!’. ‘Will you sleep with me for a dollar?’ ‘No, what do you think I am?’. ‘Well, we’ve established what you are, now we are just negotiating’.”
Hilary Swank is so self-serving and self-promoting. My feeling is that it fatigues audiences and tinsletown.
Loud and clear, JASON…
This is the modus operandi of Untitled in general and JW in particular. Anything for money. Staging paparazzi shots, paid public appearances and now this. Jason, maybe if you spent more time reading scripts and less time booking travel to the French Riviera for some oligarch’s latest yacht party this kind of stuff wouldn’t happen. I’m an agent at a real agency and let me tell you, this is not the end of the flight from Untitled. Not even close.
“I’m an agent at a real agency.” Congrats. I think that places you somewhere between australopithecus and homo habilis.
Was she incapable of doing a simple Google search herself? Even typing in his name and clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky” brings up details of human rights abuses.
Why is she blaming those around her? It is saying that she isn’t smart enough to know that you don’t take money from the Hitler’s of the world? Hard to believe she didn’t know what she was taking.
Considering her “career” as of late, this was a long overdue decision.
If Hilary Swank needs money she can pick up the phone and book a TV gig in about five minutes. What is it about the greed and entitlement of many already rich celebrities that they’re willing to do these private gigs and personal appearances for some of the nastiest dictators and oligarchs on the planet? They’re wealthy already– why do they think it’s okay to take a million bucks to give some nasty piece of work bragging rights?
I think it’s great when celebrities are caught receiving bloody money, even more when they tried so hard to sell themselves with such high morals.
Now Hillary blaming her staff for it, it’s just even more ridiculous.
In another world, Ramzan Kadyrov is firing his PR for hiring Hillary and making him looking bad.
Of course she blames everyone else for her own stupidity. Why couldn’t she just have googled Ramzan Kadyrov herself instead of relying on other people to do it for her?
Strange that CAA and Swank didn’t get the picture and laugh off the offer in the first place. Chad Lowe would have advised that this was not a good idea, or for that matter so would have the average ten-year-old. Was everyone involved on a coke-fueled bender? The whole episode makes no sense.
Reading the story from Guy, it’s weird that she didn’t fire caa… they were the ones who had an agent with her in Chechnya.
She should have done some research before attending. She’s royally screwed herself now.
The real story in The Independent is buried in the article’s last paragraph:
“Mr Weinberg’s role in the saga was particularly unfortunate. Just before the event, the talent manager … wrote an email to the New York-based Human Rights Foundation saying Swank had “no current plans to attend”. That was clearly untrue. But a source close to the controversy denied a deliberate effort to mislead. “Jason was never properly told about the Grozny event,” the source said. “The booking was handled by Hilary’s lawyer, Jeff Bernstein, and her team at CAA. Jeff drafted the misleading statement. Jason just sent it.”
It’s amazing that the geniuses at CAA are getting away with so little culpability here. They’re completely complicit in this — they’re the ones charged with booking paying gigs, and they knew every step of the way what was going on. Amie Yavor is the agent who books speaking appearances; how can she not have known that she was sending a client into the lion’s den? I guess a $150,000 commission was enough for CAA to look the other way on recommending a client consort with a psychotic and genocidal tyrant.
Her loss. She is notoriously difficult and an incredibly hard sell in this climate. She had her run and will be back doing the Next Karate Kid : part 2 in no time. I give it 3 months before that malcontent leaves them too.
Not a big deal that he lost one client.If you look on IMDB pro Jason is listed as the personal manager for all of these actresses and about 30-40 men and women others besides these: Olivia Wilde, Milla Jovovich, Blake Lively,Sofia Vergara,Demi Moore, Carla Gugino, Marisa Tomei, Minnie Driver, Liv Tyler, Connie britton, Uma Thurman, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Rodriguez, Lea Michele, Naomi Watts, Julia Stiles, Alice Eve, Anne Heche, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alicia Silverstone, Ruth Wilson. Easy to see how this could have fallen through the cracks. Aren’t managers supposed make sure things don’t fall through the cracks with agents and lawyers so something like this doesn’t happen?
This is ALL A PUBLICITY STUNT on the part of Ms. Swank, she did wrong here, and she is trying to blame everyone around her. No one in Hollywood likes her and everyone that has worked with her knows exactly what she is up to.
I think you’re confused about what a “publicity stunt” actually is.
Hilary Swank is one of those “trick” Oscar winners who managed to pull the trick off twice. Which is great for her. But she is not attractive and is not talented. She means nothing at the box office. Of course she knew what she was doing when she took the cash- girl needed it. Blaming others is a poor way to go.
It is an agents/managers job to vet all offers for their clients. That is one reason why they make 10%! The agents/managers obviously didn’t do their jobs, they did not protect her and that is why she is firing them. I am sure she is not desperate for money, showing up and giving speeches is something all celebrities, politicians and people in the public do to generate income. It hardly means they are broke if they get paid for public appearances. Paris Hilton and Kim Kardasian both get paid to go to stupid parties and they are hardly broke!
HELLLOOOOO….HER ASSISTANT WAS ON ALL OF THE EMAILS!
You keep saying that as if a star’s assistant has any power with the star.
They are just there to run errands, not make decisions.