Weinstein Fallout: Amazon Studio Chief Resigns
Lesley Goldberg reports at The Hollywood Reporter:
Roy Price's days at Amazon Studios have come to an end.
Days after one of the retail outlet and streaming giant's top producers accused Price of sexual harassment, the executive has resigned as head of Amazon Studios.
Price was placed on a leave of absence on Oct. 12, with Amazon chief operating officer Albert Cheng taking over on an interim basis. The suspension was considered indefinite, with Price making the move permanent Tuesday with his resignation. (Industry observers did not expect Price to return.) In the wake of the sexual harassment allegations, Price's fiancee, writer Lila Feinberg, called off their planned wedding. (She was to wear a custom dress designed by Georgina Chapman, the estranged wife to Harvey Weinstein.)
"Price's resignation comes days after Isa Hackett, a producer on Amazon's The Man in the High Castle and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, detailed in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter her 'shocking and surreal' experience with the programming chief in July 2015," Goldberg writes.
"You will love my d---," Hackett quotes Price as saying, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hackett then reportedly "relayed her account to others. The producer says she reported the incident immediately to Amazon executives."
The resignation "news comes after Amazon scrapped Price's top priority -- a $160 million Weinstein Co.-produced David O. Russell drama starring Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore — just a day after the executive's suspension," Goldberg reports.
"Amazon on Friday completely cut ties with The Weinstein Co. in the wake of rape and sexual harassment allegations against former co-founder Harvey Weinstein," Goldberg continues.
"Amazon's relations with Weinstein again became part of the news narrative Thursday when actress Rose McGowan fired off a string of tweets to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. The first: '@JeffBezos I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said it. He said it hadn't been proven. I said I was the proof'."
According to Goldberg, McGowan also alleged "that a script she had in development with the company was later killed. The tweets received heavy attention in part because this was the first time that McGowan had identified her assailant by name."
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