The_Hollywood_Reporter__February_07_2018

↑ Moguls
Sony Shake-Up
Does the new CEO care
about Hollywood? p. 12
Film
Clint’s Casting
Eastwood on why he hired
non-actors for 15:17 p. 14
The Re
Behind the Headlines
ort
Heat Index
David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
The Game of Thrones creators
jump to light speed with
Lucasfilm to write and produce
new Star Wars films (separate
from the Rian Johnson trilogy).
Charles Harder
The litigator for Donald
Trump, Harvey Weinstein and
Hulk Hogan sees partner
Douglas Mirell quit, saying
he was “uncomfortable” with
the firm’s client list.
YOSHIDA: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES. BENIOFF: JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC FOR HBO. HARDER: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. WALDEN: GREG DOHERTY/GETTY IMAGES. CIRRINCIONE: JOHNNY NUNEZ/WIREIMAGE.
Dana Walden &
Gary Newman
The Fox TV co-CEOs
preside over a robust launch
for Ryan Murphy’s 911 and
see the broadcaster hit No. 1
for the first month of 2018
— before the Super Bowl put
NBC back on top.
Vincent Cirrincione
The producer and manager
of Halle Berry and Taraji P.
Henson shutters his company
after nine claims of sexual
harassment are reported by
The Washington Post.
Showbiz Stocks
$220.88 (+2.9%)
THE MADISON SQUARE
GARDEN CO. (MSG)
The venue owner posts strong
quarterly earnings thanks to
robust ticket sales.
$1,005.80 (-10.2%)
ALPHABET (GOOG)
Google’s parent loses
$3 billion in the latest quarter
after taking a one-time
tax charge of $9.9 billion to
account for recent changes
in the U.S. tax code.
Jan. 29-Feb. 5
‘Everyone Is Trying to Cover
Their Asses as Much as Possible’
Sex abuse insurance? It could happen, as studios race to include broad morality clauses in contracts
and dealmakers now must protect against unearthed misconduct claims BY TATIANA SIEGEL
Moral turpitude? It’s a
concept that showbiz
talent soon will be wellacquainted
with. The term, which
means “an act or behavior that
gravely violates the sentiment or
accepted standard of the community,”
is popping up in contracts of
actors and filmmakers in the
wake of the #MeToo movement
that has rocked Hollywood.
Fox is just one of the studios
that is trying to insert broad
morality clauses into its talent
deals, giving it the ability to
terminate any contract “if the
talent engages in conduct that
results in adverse publicity or
notoriety or risks bringing the
talent into public disrepute,
contempt, scandal or ridicule.”
A Paramount source says it long
has had standards of conduct
that it asks employees and talent
to adhere to and that it’s reviewing
its approach in the new
era. At the same time, several
smaller distributors have begun
to add a clause in their longform
contracts that gives them
an out if a key individual in a
film — whether during or before
the term of the contract — committed
or is charged with an act
considered under state or federal
laws to be a felony or crime of
moral turpitude.
Studios and buyers are
responding to the real financial
losses incurred in the aftermath
of a flurry of sexual harassment
and assault accusations and
admissions that have enveloped
everyone from Kevin Spacey
Illustration by Zohar Lazar
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
11
FEBRUARY 7, 2018
to Brett Ratner to Jeremy Piven
since October, when Harvey
Weinstein first was outed as a
predator. Netflix took a $39 million
write-down following
numerous assault accusations
involving House of Cards’ Spacey,
who also was poised to play
Gore Vidal in a movie for the
streamer. CFO David Wells didn’t
name Spacey or The Ranch star
Danny Masterson, who left the
Netflix series following rape
accusations, but said the writedown
was “related to the societal
reset around sexual harassment.”
Similarly, All the Money in
the World financier Imperative
Entertainment had to pony
up $10 million to replace Spacey
with Christopher Plummer for
eleventh-hour reshoots on the