Hollywood Producer Rudely Bashed Sydney Sweeney - And Was NOT Prepared For The Response!

What is it about Sydney Sweeney that’s making people lose their minds?!

Hollywood professionals are good about not burning bridges. You’ll notice how rare and amazing s**t-talkers like Dakota Johnson and Miriam Margolyes are. For the most part filmmakers keep it diplomatic lest they upset someone who might hurt their chances of making a movie later on. But not when it comes to Sydney, apparently!

The Euphoria star has just been triggering folks all over, and we honestly don’t know why. From right-wingers declaring her presence at the GLAAD awards means wOkE iS oVeR to that insane Slate article a couple weeks back titled Sydney Sweeney’s Boobs Are Not That Big. (Yes, that’s real.) Girl is making people CRAZY!

Cut to a Q&A with Carol Baum last week. She’s known for producing films like Father of the Bride and Fly Away Home in the ’80s and ’90s. Now she mostly exec produces Hallmark Christmas rom coms. And she’s about to be known for making something else — gaffes! For some reason the filmmaker decided to just drag the hell out of Sydney in front of a room full of people on Thursday night! Baum sat down with NY Times critic Janet Maslin at a screening of her 1988 film Dead Ringers and told a story about how a terrible movie star brought up an interesting question in her class. We think you can guess where this is going. She told Maslin:

“There’s an actress who everybody loves now, Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this movie — [this] romantic comedy where they hate each other.”

Obviously she’s talking about the rom com Anyone But You. The flick opened to disappointing box office numbers but became December’s little film that could, bringing in viewers well into February, eventually making $218 MILLION. That success, near as anyone can tell, is all about audience word of mouth and the undeniable charm of its stars. Well, we say “undeniable”… Carol says different. She continued:

“I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?'”

God DAMN, Carol! Not only did she tell her students this, she declared it at a public event?! How rude! If the star’s looks aren’t to your taste, fine. But this is just declaring war on a movie star — who, by the way, has also now produced TWO hit movies, including Anyone But You AND her low budget horror flick Immaculate, which she brought back from the dead to become indie darling Neon‘s highest grossing movie of all time.

Anyway, Carol finally came to her point, explaining:

“Nobody had an answer but then the question was asked, ‘Well if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’ I said, ‘Well that’s a really good question…that’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.'”

We feel like she could have made this point without naming the actress she wasn’t a fan of. Doing it this way just seems so rude and pointless! And Sydney’s people thought so, too!

Her rep responded to the story, releasing this statement to multiple outlets:

“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”

Daaaaamn. What a classy response! Sydney’s fans went for a, well, let’s say a more pointed response. Here are some of the comments we saw on social media:

“Trash talking the looks of an objectively attractive woman is low.”

“Carol Baum doesn’t produce great movies anyway, what a nasty person. Sydney is producing her own successful movies, sounds like jealousy.”

“How do some people not hear how bitter and envious they sound…”

“It reeks of ‘she reminds me of the pretty girl I was jealous of and wanted to be in high school so I will tear her down to make myself feel better’ energy.”

“Sydney Sweeney received 2 Emmy nods for acting at age 24 delivered 2 hit films she headlined AND produced at age 26. Carol Baum, with nothing relevant on her resume in 30 years, should sit this one out”

But it wasn’t just fans who had something to say! Sydney’s Immaculate co-producer Teddy Schwarzman had something to say as well, tweeting:

“As a producer of #Immaculate, I’ll enlighten Ms. Baum that two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney is not only one of the most talented actresses I’ve worked with, but also incredibly smart, kind and humble. I’m not sure why someone who claims to still be a producer would make such terribly ugly comments, but I can assure everyone that Sydney is at least beautiful on the inside. And, of course, a badass Scream Queen.”

Finally one more interesting voice out there. Steve Carpenter, screenwriter of Blue Streak and creator of the TV show Grimm, spoke from personal experience when hitting back at Baum. He wrote:

“I never say negative things here about individuals, but I’m making an exception with Carol Baum. She was one of the first producers I worked with, while I was still in film school, and she was just an awful person. An arrogant idiot. Her recent comments reflect that, clearly.”

I never say negative things here about individuals, but I’m making an exception with Carol Baum. She was one of the first producers I worked with, while I was still in film school, and she was just an awful person. An arrogant idiot. Her recent comments reflect that, clearly.

— Grimm Creator Stephen Carpenter (@creator_grimm) April 17, 2024

Well, damn. Like we said, most movie pros don’t burn bridges. This writer probably never would have announced publicly how awful he thought Carol was… We wonder how many others are out there ready to follow suit! We wonder if the stars of A Majestic Christmas are on Twitter…

[Image via MEGA/WENN/Sony/YouTube.]