Hollywood producer Carol Baum has admitted she regrets publicly smearing Sydney Sweeney after feeling the wrath of the actress’s die-hard fans.
Last week, Baum sparked outrage when he targeted the 26-year-old actress while speaking to New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in front of a live audience.
DailyMail.com then exclusively revealed that it had accused Sweeney of being unable to act while calling his film Everyone But You “unwatchable”.
The American star was defended by fans who quickly accused Baum of jealousy and said she was an example of “internal misogyny.”
Now, Baum has confessed that he wishes he had never made those comments, saying TMZ that ‘Fucking an actor like that in public is usually not his style.
Hollywood producer Carol Baum has admitted she regrets publicly smearing Sydney Sweeney after feeling the wrath of the actress’s die-hard fans.
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that Baum had accused Sweeney (pictured in February) of being unable to act and called his film Everyone But You “unwatchable”.
Baum went on to reveal that she was inundated with hate mail afterwards.
At the same time, Sweeney broke her silence on the debacle to criticize Baum for attacking another woman in the industry.
“How sad that a woman in a position to share her knowledge and experience would decide to attack another woman,” a representative for Sweeney told DailyMail.com.
‘If that’s what you’ve learned over your decades in the industry and you think it’s appropriate to teach it to your students, it’s embarrassing.
“Unfairly disparaging a fellow producer says a lot about Ms. Baum’s character.”
Baum was speaking to Maslin before an audience of fans when he made the comments following a screening of his 1988 film Dead Ringers, starring Jeremy Irons.
“She’s not pretty, she can’t act,” said Baum, whose films include Father of the Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
‘There’s an actress everyone loves right now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t understand Sydney Sweeney.
Sweeney, who starred alongside Glen Powell in Everyone But You (pictured) simultaneously, Sweeney broke his silence about the debacle to lash out at Baum, calling it “disgraceful.”
“How sad that a woman in a position to share her knowledge and experience would decide to attack another woman,” a representative for Sweeney told DailyMail.com.
Speaking about his romantic comedy Anything But You, in which he stars alongside Glen Powell, Baum continued: “I was watching the Sydney Sweeney movie on the plane because I wanted to see it.
‘I wanted to know who she is and why everyone is talking about her. I saw this movie that couldn’t be seen. I feel sorry for the people who love this movie. [this] Romantic comedy where they hate each other.
Referring to the production class he teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Baum added: “I told my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so sexy?’
“No one had an answer, but then the question was asked: ‘Well, if you could make your movie because she was in it, would you make it?’
“I said, ‘Well, that’s a very good question… it’s a very difficult question to answer because we all want to make the movie and who walks away from the green light? Nobody that I know. Your job is to make the movie.
Baum has produced 34 films starring the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Michael Douglas and Dolly Parton and last year published a book titled Creative Protaining.
Fans jumped to Sweeney’s defense in the wake of Baum’s incendiary comments, with one posting on
Another added: ‘God, give me the trust of Hollywood’s top producer, Carol Baum, who said this about Sydney Sweeney.'[she’s] She’s not pretty and she can’t act.” Judge for yourself.
“Just accept that Sydney is all that,” wrote a third. ‘And you are bitter [and] probably irrelevant.
Sweeney as Cassie in the provocative HBO series Euphoria, which earned her an Emmy nomination.
Sweeney’s fans jumped to her defense in the wake of Baum’s comments, with some accusing her of “jealousy.”
Sweeney, who rose to fame on HBO’s Euphoria, has become one of Hollywood’s hottest prospects, starring in three films in the last six months: Everyone But You, Madame Web and Immaculate.
A DailyMail.com article last week described how the blue-eyed American blonde has become a cultural phenomenon, her brazen sexuality embraced by America’s conservative right as proof that woke culture is dying, if ever. she is no longer dead.
Hailed by Republicans as the model of a cultural shift away from political correctness long overdue, an incredulous headline in one of Canada’s largest newspapers, the National Post, asked: “Are Sydney’s Double D Breasts?” Sweeney harbingers of the death of awakening?”
Sweeney produces her own films and is set to star in the Marvel blockbuster Spider-Woman, as well as being set to remake Jane Fonda’s unabashedly libidinous 1968 sci-fi action film Barbarella.