All Things Star Wars

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on WU!"

The first time this broke, one of my first thoughts was, "Hold on, she was in RA3 opposite Jenny McCarthy! EA sure knows how to pick 'em..."

 

So, as someone completely alien to the Mandalorian, Twitter, and Instagram, and thus this whole controversy, what is it that happened?

And if she's an alt-right troll (I mean I don't know, but from the article and other snippets I've got, that's what it looks like), why do you stand with her?

 

Back in November she came under fire for COVID-19 denialism, peddling D'ump's election conspiracy, and alleged transphobic trolling. (@Clubber Lang had originally posted an article on this but was #cancelled.) The backlash led to an apology and a scrub of the posts, but apparently earned her probation from Disney. The recent post seems to have convinced them she wouldn't shape up.

But yeah, given Carano's channelling the same crybully chuds and Russian trollbots that unpersoned Kelly Marie Tran for the crime of *checks notes* playing an unpopular character, I'm more than a little surprised Laurana is so insistent on defending her.

 

I’ve largely kept out and been on the fence about the cancellation of Gina largely because I’m burnt out from Twitter drama and only kept my attention to the less controversial segment of Twitter and YouTube (though the only controversy I’ve payed attention is with historical creators on YouTube giving justifiable criticism against YouTube censorship on historical subjects. But that’s a different subject).

It’s precisely why there’s typically an employer policy in regards to social media. If you can sweep aside the sensational fat and clickybaity articles being thrown in the media, it’s what basically boils down to is a breach of employer policy in regards to Disney’s employee policy in regards to social media usage. Though I’m deferring to Occum’s Razor and there may be other details I may have missed that are completely alien for me when it comes to employer-employee relationship in acting and anything to do with Hollywood (eg. Was she under contract?) since I’m only familiar with the employment practices that most people deal with on a daily basis. Especially in regards with At-Will Employment here in most US states.

 

I'm a little bummed out that someone whose work I enjoyed has turned out to be kind of a dope but, let's face it, I never loved her for her intellect. Famously, sports writers back in the day would edit commentary and interviews with athletes as a professional courtesy, and now we live in an age when anyone can publish anything, instantly, with no editor and with a readership of hundreds of thousands or millions, who can in turn instantly share what they read with everyone they've ever met. I think society hasn't come to grips with that. Celebrities just happen to be out in front. (I don't really know what to do about it, either, other than more funding for public education, but that's a topic for another thread.)

I don't really fault Disney for deciding they just don't want to be dealing with this kind of headache over and over, and removing Cara Dune won't exactly shake the foundations. She was fun, but she was a supporting character with no depth or connection to anything.

 

That would be true and, as you said, we would know about it. If she were under contract (and this would also fall under with workers in a union shop), Gina would still be eligible to be fired if it were for a good cause.

Me, if I was in Lucasfilm’s HR department (I know it’s an oversimplification of how they do things in Hollywood, but it’s a framework in more familiar with as with day to day average Joes-n-Janes) and the company policy states, in a nutshell, in their social media policy “Don’t make yourself an ass as we don’t want your online activities to harm our image”. I’d end up having to fire Gina due to her previous conduction of her previous actions (I presume, in comparison with regular employment that we go to, Hollywood would be far less lenient in terms of their discipline policies) because her actions on social media would do more harm to Lucasfilms.

If she were under contract; I’d end up having to have a team of HR specialists and lawyers who are specialized in employment law to ensure that I have a case of “good cause” for firing Gina when she breached a company policy. More so to avoid retaliation from Gina if and when she files a wrongful termination suit.

Typically, people who are out in the public or deals with the public has a certain degree of expectation. There just needs to be more awareness that their actions, especially if their account has their real name attached to it, would have consequences when they “make an ass of themselves”.

Gina does have a right to her opinion and views, but she has to realize that she’s also a public figure and that her actions can harm an image of her employer and by extension their brand.

By the looks of Disney and Lucasfilm, and by Thor’s link he made in his last post (though I’d argue that she’s actually in a warning period than probation since that’s usually more often reserved for newly hired employers in their first 60-90 days here in the US), she’s already on thin ice and on a final warning.

 

I wonder if she's important enough to have a good contract. Man, you should SEE the contracts nobodies get - there outta be a law...

 

At this point, I don’t think other studios would want to touch her for quite awhile unless she pulls a Robert Downey Jr. career resurrection redemption arc in a short order.

 

I agree. I think the celebrities who don't post on social media very much probably have the right idea.

I haven't kept apace of this particular drama, but yes, it seems like this was a "last straw" situation. I imagine Disney could be looking ahead and asking themselves if they really need to deal with this, going forward. It's unclear to me whether they voided an existing contract or simply decided not to renew her. If it was the latter, I can imagine them thinking the juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

I do worry about people getting "blackballed." But otoh, Hollywood is a rough business anyway, and nobody's guaranteed anything. I don't see any reason Gina Carano should get work when Deborah Ann Woll can't. I guess I'm also assuming that Carano isn't going to be living on the streets while she's in a timeout. I mean, we're not talking about migrant day-workers, here.

 

One may also note that a lot of the groups that she took potshots at over her time on social media just so happen to be groups that Pedro Pascal is part of (latin-american, refugee (from a right wing dictatorship even!), naturalized american), or closely linked to (trans people, given his sister). And now she's taken to liking posts attacking him directly.

May just be me, but I struggle to think of a job where constantly and gratuitously antagonizing a more senior member of the team (he's the lead actor, she's a supporting actress) is a healthy career choice.

 

I guess I owe you a plate of cookies since apparently the “Facts Don’t Care About Your Feeling” Guy (Ben Shapiro for those not in the know), has picked her up for his Daily Wire production.

 

Associating herself with that little gnome seems like it would do more damage to her brand than twitter conspiracy-posting. The twitter stuff makes like her look ignorant and mean, but this makes her look like a dork, and when you whole persona is about being an MMA tough-girl that's a pretty fatal blow to your image.

 

not a particular rant or anything but ı have discovered some evil website had a contest about re-imagining Star Wars in which anything goes like Boba Darth the train robbers



and hints of cool redesigns and stuff ... But the site doesn't allow access to the thread ...

and possibly unrelated but Darth Ahtapot , octupus in Turkish , as referenced in pages past

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