News Lasseter taking leave of absence

[Donaldfan1934]

I mean, let google do the work for us. Type Harvey Weinstein. 70 million hits. Lasseter? 2 million.

Are these results pre-Weinstein scandal or post-Weinstein scandal? Because if they're post, that is a pretty unfair comparison.

Then go over to "images". Scroll down. In most of the top hits, Lasseter just looks like some suburban dad who seems to like goofy shirts. I honestly could not picture him in my head until I just went to look. There are a few random pics of him with some Toy Story toys in his hand, but other than that there is like one pic of him with George Lucas and one with Owen Wilson.

Now go back to Harvey and scroll down the same. Pictures of him at fancy cocktail parties boozing it up with Madonna, Gwyneth, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Hillary Clinton, Gwyneth, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth (man, that woman seems like his biggest fan, she is constantly fawning all over him in public...) - you get the drift. These are all pictures that every InStyle or People magazine reader in America has seen regularly for twenty-five years.

Just George Lucas and Owen Wilson, huh? Well you haven't been looking hard enough.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I can find you even more pictures of John Lasseter with culturally influential people if you want me to.

 

[AEfx]

First, before I respond - seriously? Are you really such a Disney fanboi that you are going to argue this?

Are these results pre-Weinstein scandal or post-Weinstein scandal? Because if they're post, that is a pretty unfair comparison.

The numbers are from just now. After both their scandals.

These are *lifetime* Google numbers. As much as Weinstein has been in the media over the past month or two, there haven't been millions of articles written about it. Thousands, yes. Not enough to even begin to impact these numbers. But since the invention of the internet, or at least Google's cataloging of it, Lassetter has 3% of the hits that Harvey Weinstein has.

I realize you weren't even in diapers until the latter part of the decade, so I understand why you don't have any concept of how famous Harvey Weinstein really became in the 1990's, and how he was the most famous and celebrated executive in the country, not to mention the face of Hollywood aside from the actual superstar actors. This was when magazines were at their height, before everyone turned to the Internet for their news. This was when the people I listed off (see below) were the most famous people on the planet, and he was in those magazines every week with them. He was the toast of Hollywood, and was responsible for the most celebrated critically and financially successful films of the decade.

I really cannot overstate how much fame the man had - he really is the most recognizable movie executive since the days of Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner. The only other person who ever compared was Eisner, though that was mostly because of his television presence - Eisner was comparatively ubiquitous in that way during the 1980's, but wasn't as lauded or publicly celebrated. He just hosted the Disney specials.

Just George Lucas and Owen Wilson, huh? Well you haven't been looking hard enough.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I can find you even more pictures of John Lasseter with culturally influential people if you want me to.

Yeah...no. You don't need to waste any more time digging around to prove my point.

As I stated, I was going by the top (statistically most relevant) results when you type the men's names into Google. I never said you couldn't find pictures of Lasseter with various celebrities. Comparing the same amount of top image hits for both of them, it's not even a comparison.

Again, I don't mean to harp on your age, but it's just totally relevant here - the names I listed off - Madonna, Paltrow, Clooney, Affleck, Pitt, so on - for a decade these were the absolutely biggest stars on the planet. If you walked past a magazine rack, these were the people on the cover of nearly every single one. And if they weren't on the cover, they were on the inside. It would be rare to find an article about one of them and not see at least one photo where Harvey was pictured right along side (or, often, they were pictured surrounding him, looking entranced and fawning over him like he just said the most hilarious or fascinating thing).

That's why the Weinstein scandal had the impact that it has. He may not have been at those creative or financially successful heights in recent years, but he has remained a celebrity because of what has now been well-documented in the many articles surrounding the scandal - he didn't just use his publicity skills to make superstars or rack up Academy Award nominations for his films, he also used them to promote himself as a celebrity on his own.

You don't lose that kind of fame - and it's a kind of fame that Lasseter has never had.

 

[Pixieish]

Are these results pre-Weinstein scandal or post-Weinstein scandal? Because if they're post, that is a pretty unfair comparison.


Just George Lucas and Owen Wilson, huh? Well you haven't been looking hard enough.
View attachment 246680 View attachment 246682 View attachment 246690 View attachment 246691 View attachment 246689
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I can find you even more pictures of John Lasseter with culturally influential people if you want me to.

First, before I respond - seriously? Are you really such a Disney fanboi that you are going to argue this?



The numbers are from just now. After both their scandals.

These are *lifetime* Google numbers. As much as Weinstein has been in the media over the past month or two, there haven't been millions of articles written about it. Thousands, yes. Not enough to even begin to impact these numbers. But since the invention of the internet, or at least Google's cataloging of it, Lassetter has 3% of the hits that Harvey Weinstein has.

I realize you weren't even in diapers until the latter part of the decade, so I understand why you don't have any concept of how famous Harvey Weinstein really became in the 1990's, and how he was the most famous and celebrated executive in the country, not to mention the face of Hollywood aside from the actual superstar actors. This was when magazines were at their height, before everyone turned to the Internet for their news. This was when the people I listed off (see below) were the most famous people on the planet, and he was in those magazines every week with them. He was the toast of Hollywood, and was responsible for the most celebrated critically and financially successful films of the decade.

I really cannot overstate how much fame the man had - he really is the most recognizable movie executive since the days of Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner. The only other person who ever compared was Eisner, though that was mostly because of his television presence - Eisner was comparatively ubiquitous in that way during the 1980's, but wasn't as lauded or publicly celebrated. He just hosted the Disney specials.



Yeah...no. You don't need to waste any more time digging around to prove my point.

As I stated, I was going by the top (statistically most relevant) results when you type the men's names into Google. I never said you couldn't find pictures of Lasseter with various celebrities. Comparing the same amount of top image hits for both of them, it's not even a comparison.

Again, I don't mean to harp on your age, but it's just totally relevant here - the names I listed off - Madonna, Paltrow, Clooney, Affleck, Pitt, so on - for a decade these were the absolutely biggest stars on the planet. If you walked past a magazine rack, these were the people on the cover of nearly every single one. And if they weren't on the cover, they were on the inside. It would be rare to find an article about one of them and not see at least one photo where Harvey was pictured right along side (or, often, they were pictured surrounding him, looking entranced and fawning over him like he just said the most hilarious or fascinating thing).

That's why the Weinstein scandal had the impact that it has. He may not have been at those creative or financially successful heights in recent years, but he has remained a celebrity because of what has now been well-documented in the many articles surrounding the scandal - he didn't just use his publicity skills to make superstars or rack up Academy Award nominations for his films, he also used them to promote himself as a celebrity on his own.

You don't lose that kind of fame - and it's a kind of fame that Lasseter has never had.

To give you some perspective - I've never been one to follow what's going on in Hollywood or watch awards shows, or read the mags covered with celebrities, but even I have known who Weinstein was since the 90s.

 

[Mmoore29]

I seriously doubt that Lasseter is done. What he did is undoubtedly inexcusable, but you must remember that basically all we have here is someone who was grabby and had a very misplaced idea of what affection is, clearly as he still hasn't fully defeated the habits and attitudes of the era he grew up in, much like how Walt, while not being a flaming racist or an anti-Semite as has been popularly alleged, was very un-PC and certainly had chauvinistic traits.

Disney has given every indication that they will stand by him. And why not? If this is the extent of his behavior, there is no reason to sack him for it. Lasseter has been an invaluable asset to Disney, the likes of which would be hard to replace.

 

[hokielutz]

Barring some high profile stories and new revelations that come out and interviews of people claiming harassment, I don't expect that John is done for good with Disney/Pixar. If nothing else comes up, you can probably start to see JL gradually/quietly coming back into the fold at the studios after the six month sabbatical, but likely at a higher level with less daily management of projects to start.

But given the highly charged environment we are in.... maybe the other shoe hasn't dropped yet.

 

[bclane]

I seriously doubt that Lasseter is done. What he did is undoubtedly inexcusable, but you must remember that basically all we have here is someone who was grabby and had a very misplaced idea of what affection is, clearly as he still hasn't fully defeated the habits and attitudes of the era he grew up in, much like how Walt, while not being a flaming racist or an anti-Semite as has been popularly alleged, was very un-PC and certainly had chauvinistic traits.

Disney has given every indication that they will stand by him. And why not? If this is the extent of his behavior, there is no reason to sack him for it. Lasseter has been an invaluable asset to Disney, the likes of which would be hard to replace.

I can see how the long hugs could possibly (remotely possibly) be just JL being overly affectionate and not purposely trying to be inappropriate...but mouth kissing and thigh grabs are pretty hard to excuse. I mean come on. You have to know that you can't kiss any woman on the mouth or touch a woman on her thigh (much less a co-worker/employee) unless you are dating or married to her (and even then you still need consent). Maybe I can see tapping a REALLY close friend on the KNEE with the back of the hand to get her attention if you are sitting far enough away that that is all you can reach...but even then I would think that this would be an extremely rare occurrence and just the thought of doing it should send up red flags and cause a person to think before they act. But like I've said before, it's REMOTELY possible that JL really didn't know that some of his actions were unwanted because nobody ever told him how they felt about it...but I SERIOUSLY doubt that.

Edit: that wasn’t all directed at you Mmoore29 but just a general response to several posts in this thread from different people. I actually quoted you just to say one thing and got on a roll and ended up saying a lot more than I originally intended to say. Lol!

 

[LAKid53]

Hasn't it been reported that JL grabbed a female Disney employee's at an Oscar after party? That's a lot more than "creepy hugging".

 

[bclane]

Hasn't it been reported that JL grabbed a female Disney employee's ******* at an Oscar after party? That's a lot more than "creepy hugging".

I think there have been many articles that discuss that he has been accused of "grabbing" woman, so definitely a lot more than just creepy hugging.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I think there have been many articles that discuss that he has been accused of "grabbing" woman, so definitely a lot more than just creepy hugging.

There’s been confirmation of at least one settlement over Lasseter’s behavior.

 

[bclane]

There’s been confirmation of at least one settlement over Lasseter’s behavior.

I would love to know what the settlement was for. I mean, was it for something a lot more serious than the other terrible behavior he got away with for years (until now obviously) or was it the same kind of stuff? If it was the same kind of assault, he definitely can’t claim ignorance on the rest of it.

 

[Pixieish]

In at least one of the articles, there's mention of a picture in which someone asked why it was cropped so high, and the answer was "You didn't see where his hands were!", so there's that to consider as well. Way more than just over-hugging and such.

 

[bclane]

In at least one of the articles, there's mention of a picture in which someone asked why it was cropped so high, and the answer was "You didn't see where his hands were!", so there's that to consider as well. Way more than just over-hugging and such.

I also remember reading that.

 

[crxbrett]

John is done at Disney folks. I think the only reason he has't been terminated yet was because this hit the press the day before a major holiday weekend began. He'll be terminated within a week I would guess.

I thought I had also read that Rashida Jones left Toy Story 4 because of him directly harassing her or groping her?

 

[TwilightZone]

I wonder why everyone is just saying creepy hugging when it's been stated multiple times in this thread that what he had done is more than just that. It's just as pointless as saying the wreck it ralph ride is (was) going to be vr after iger changed his mind about it.

 

[Nj4mwc]

First, before I respond - seriously? Are you really such a Disney fanboi that you are going to argue this?



The numbers are from just now. After both their scandals.

These are *lifetime* Google numbers. As much as Weinstein has been in the media over the past month or two, there haven't been millions of articles written about it. Thousands, yes. Not enough to even begin to impact these numbers. But since the invention of the internet, or at least Google's cataloging of it, Lassetter has 3% of the hits that Harvey Weinstein has.

I realize you weren't even in diapers until the latter part of the decade, so I understand why you don't have any concept of how famous Harvey Weinstein really became in the 1990's, and how he was the most famous and celebrated executive in the country, not to mention the face of Hollywood aside from the actual superstar actors. This was when magazines were at their height, before everyone turned to the Internet for their news. This was when the people I listed off (see below) were the most famous people on the planet, and he was in those magazines every week with them. He was the toast of Hollywood, and was responsible for the most celebrated critically and financially successful films of the decade.

I really cannot overstate how much fame the man had - he really is the most recognizable movie executive since the days of Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner. The only other person who ever compared was Eisner, though that was mostly because of his television presence - Eisner was comparatively ubiquitous in that way during the 1980's, but wasn't as lauded or publicly celebrated. He just hosted the Disney specials.



Yeah...no. You don't need to waste any more time digging around to prove my point.

As I stated, I was going by the top (statistically most relevant) results when you type the men's names into Google. I never said you couldn't find pictures of Lasseter with various celebrities. Comparing the same amount of top image hits for both of them, it's not even a comparison.

Again, I don't mean to harp on your age, but it's just totally relevant here - the names I listed off - Madonna, Paltrow, Clooney, Affleck, Pitt, so on - for a decade these were the absolutely biggest stars on the planet. If you walked past a magazine rack, these were the people on the cover of nearly every single one. And if they weren't on the cover, they were on the inside. It would be rare to find an article about one of them and not see at least one photo where Harvey was pictured right along side (or, often, they were pictured surrounding him, looking entranced and fawning over him like he just said the most hilarious or fascinating thing).

That's why the Weinstein scandal had the impact that it has. He may not have been at those creative or financially successful heights in recent years, but he has remained a celebrity because of what has now been well-documented in the many articles surrounding the scandal - he didn't just use his publicity skills to make superstars or rack up Academy Award nominations for his films, he also used them to promote himself as a celebrity on his own.

You don't lose that kind of fame - and it's a kind of fame that Lasseter has never had.

I agree, I'm in the military so my work place is essentially 18 - 40 year old male dominated work place. Harvey Has been discussed almost every day since the scandal broke. when I bring up Lassiter the vast majority have no idea who is is, outside of a few random people. I remember knowing who Harvey was back in middle school and wanting to grow up to be a producer just like him. Not many others outside of rockstars and Maybe Obama had that amount of celebrities fawn all over him.

 

[AEfx]

I agree, I'm in the military so my work place is essentially 18 - 40 year old male dominated work place. Harvey Has been discussed almost every day since the scandal broke. when I bring up Lassiter the vast majority have no idea who is is, outside of a few random people. I remember knowing who Harvey was back in middle school and wanting to grow up to be a producer just like him. Not many others outside of rockstars and Maybe Obama had that amount of celebrities fawn all over him.

Looking at the pictures now is disturbing and perplexing all at once.

I mean, how many people have Madonna standing next to them wide-eyed and captivated? Madonna, who is usually described as "the celebrity of celebrities" (especially then, she was the most photographed woman in the world after The Queen and Elizabeth Taylor, and the most of her generation).

The Gwyneth ones are...just too much now. She comes up over and over, draped over him, *kissing him* on the cheek, hands all over him - yet in so many he looks like he doesn't particularly care. And this is years after the alleged incident between them.

Whole thing makes my skin crawl.

 

[sedati]

I thought I had also read that Rashida Jones left Toy Story 4 because of him directly harassing her or groping her?

You probably did read that, but that is why she had to issue this clarification:

“The breakneck speed at which journalists have been naming the next perpetrator renders some reporting irresponsible,” they said. “We did not leave Pixar because of unwanted advances. That is untrue. We parted ways because of creative and, more importantly, philosophical differences.

“There is so much talent at Pixar, and we remain enormous fans of their films,” they continued. “However, it is also a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice.”

Ms. Jones and Mr. McCormack concluded the statement by saying: “We encourage Pixar to be leaders in bolstering, hiring and promoting more diverse and female storytellers and leaders. We hope we can encourage all those who have felt like their voices could not be heard in the past to feel empowered.”

 

[Lora Baines Bradley]

Going to copy and paste what I said on another site...
The news about John Lasseter makes me so sad. I’m a senior in high school and throughout my childhood Disney films were essentially John Lasseter’s doing. I grew up seeing him on my television screen as I poured over interviews and commentaries on DVDs. Pixar films nurtured my love of narrative and for deep, emotional, compelling stories. To hear this news is a slap in the face. These stories that I held dear are now tainted, and it will take time for them to be rid of it.

It especially hurts being a woman, and knowing that someone you held in such high esteem could fall so far. A month ago if I had the opportunity to meet this man I would have been ecstatic, so eager to tell him what he did for my childhood. Now I would be scared to even meet him. If these allegations are true, I hope Disney makes the right call in cutting off all ties with this man.

Goodbye, John Lasseter. While I will miss your creativity, I will not miss your misconduct. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[AEfx]

Going to copy and paste what I said on another site...
The news about John Lasseter makes me so sad. I’m a senior in high school and throughout my childhood Disney films were essentially John Lasseter’s doing. I grew up seeing him on my television screen as I poured over interviews and commentaries on DVDs. Pixar films nurtured my love of narrative and for deep, emotional, compelling stories. To hear this news is a slap in the face. These stories that I held dear are now tainted, and it will take time for them to be rid of it.

It especially hurts being a woman, and knowing that someone you held in such high esteem could fall so far. A month ago if I had the opportunity to meet this man I would have been ecstatic, so eager to tell him what he did for my childhood. Now I would be scared to even meet him. If these allegations are true, I hope Disney makes the right call in cutting off all ties with this man.

Goodbye, John Lasseter. While I will miss your creativity, I will not miss your misconduct. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

I can tell you are really genuinely hurt by all this. That it's a really shocking revelation and has affected you pretty deeply.

What I'm about to say is something that a lot of people wouldn't. I certainly am not posting this because I feel a need to defend him, nor do I think I can change how you feel about this - but I do think it's important to put this in some context that may seem really foreign to someone who has grown up only in this millennium. I'm absolutely honest when I say I've never thought about the man until people started posting about this - I knew his name, but he could have walked past me on the street and I wouldn't have been any wiser.

I know that from your perspective, he has suddenly gone from being a brilliant man who inspired you, to a complete sexual predator. You feel betrayed, lied to - like he was secretly this terrible perverted creep underneath this whole time. I think it's important for you to understand that before this happened, he probably doesn't understand it any more than you do.

That may seem crazy, but he is an old man. From a much different time. To him, he was being affectionate to people. If you asked him, he would probably tell you that he respects, admires, and supports women, very much. I know that may sound ridiculous - how could he not realize what a terrible, awful person he was being?

Well, if you read the stories about this, you will see - people went to very great lengths to hide the fact from him that he made people uncomfortable. This is the opposite of someone like Harvey Weinstein (who committed actual crimes), who was clearly in charge of getting people to cover for him. Weinstein knew very well that what he was doing was wrong. The remarkable thing about this story is that you keep reading over and over how everyone whispered about it, but I have yet to hear anyone ever said anything to him.

You have to realize, that this stuff wasn't even talked until the last 25 years or so. And the stuff he is being accused of, really has only been considered "sexual harassment" for an even shorter period of time. "Sexual harassment" wasn't even a term until the 80's, and even into the 90's it was "if you sleep with me, you can keep your job". A hand on the knee wasn't considered a "violation", especially if the recipient doesn't move away or say "please don't do that". Unless more comes out and he actually forcefully assaulted someone, I honestly don't think he realized what he was doing was wrong.

Again, I know this seems absolutely crazy - how could he be alive in 2017 and not know this was considered terrible, predatory behavior? Because he has been a wealthy, sheltered man who has been hunkered down in an animation studio for pretty much the entire time that this stuff has become socially unacceptable.

I'm not telling you to feel badly for him - or not to feel betrayed. But I think it's important to know these things, to be able to put it into context - because I think most of us know what it's like to be your age and that first time we realized our heroes weren't perfect. That they were flawed people, just like everyone else. The parts of him that are in the films you love aren't necessarily less because he was an ignorant man of another generation, and that there is every chance he didn't even realize this about himself, until now.

 

[Donaldfan1934]

First, before I respond - seriously? Are you really such a Disney fanboi that you are going to argue this?



The numbers are from just now. After both their scandals.

These are *lifetime* Google numbers. As much as Weinstein has been in the media over the past month or two, there haven't been millions of articles written about it. Thousands, yes. Not enough to even begin to impact these numbers. But since the invention of the internet, or at least Google's cataloging of it, Lassetter has 3% of the hits that Harvey Weinstein has.

I realize you weren't even in diapers until the latter part of the decade, so I understand why you don't have any concept of how famous Harvey Weinstein really became in the 1990's, and how he was the most famous and celebrated executive in the country, not to mention the face of Hollywood aside from the actual superstar actors. This was when magazines were at their height, before everyone turned to the Internet for their news. This was when the people I listed off (see below) were the most famous people on the planet, and he was in those magazines every week with them. He was the toast of Hollywood, and was responsible for the most celebrated critically and financially successful films of the decade.

I really cannot overstate how much fame the man had - he really is the most recognizable movie executive since the days of Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner. The only other person who ever compared was Eisner, though that was mostly because of his television presence - Eisner was comparatively ubiquitous in that way during the 1980's, but wasn't as lauded or publicly celebrated. He just hosted the Disney specials.



Yeah...no. You don't need to waste any more time digging around to prove my point.

As I stated, I was going by the top (statistically most relevant) results when you type the men's names into Google. I never said you couldn't find pictures of Lasseter with various celebrities. Comparing the same amount of top image hits for both of them, it's not even a comparison.

Again, I don't mean to harp on your age, but it's just totally relevant here - the names I listed off - Madonna, Paltrow, Clooney, Affleck, Pitt, so on - for a decade these were the absolutely biggest stars on the planet. If you walked past a magazine rack, these were the people on the cover of nearly every single one. And if they weren't on the cover, they were on the inside. It would be rare to find an article about one of them and not see at least one photo where Harvey was pictured right along side (or, often, they were pictured surrounding him, looking entranced and fawning over him like he just said the most hilarious or fascinating thing).

That's why the Weinstein scandal had the impact that it has. He may not have been at those creative or financially successful heights in recent years, but he has remained a celebrity because of what has now been well-documented in the many articles surrounding the scandal - he didn't just use his publicity skills to make superstars or rack up Academy Award nominations for his films, he also used them to promote himself as a celebrity on his own.

You don't lose that kind of fame - and it's a kind of fame that Lasseter has never had.

You have a point that Harvey built a huge name for himself in the 1990's within the industry for producing some of the biggest movies of the decade, but you've got to keep in mind that we're both talking about the general public who only has a surface level awareness of movies both animated and live action. Part of my point for posting the photos of Lasseter with celebrities is that despite posing with some of the most famous people on the planet in pictures that have ended up in magazines, the general public only notices the said famous person and not necessarily the person standing next to them. If I asked all my family members 6 months ago who Harvey Weinstein was, I can bet you most of them either would vaguely know the name or wouldn't know at all and that includes people who read gossip magazines in the 1990's. It's also worth mentioning that the most famous people behind the camera in Hollywood aren't the producers, but directors like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and that was especially true for the general public in the 1990's. I also think you're underestimating the impact the scandal has had in the past month or two. One could argue that the domino effect that it caused has generated more media than recent politics. And that's especially true when you consider social media trends like #metoo. In short, there's no denying that both of these men were massive figures in their respective ends of the entertainment industry, but there's also no denying that they weren't household names to people who aren't avid followers of their respective career paths.