Scarlett Johansson’s legal representatives accuses Disney of a ‘misogynistic attack’ and the company of being afraid to litigate in public.
As expected, Disney is attempting to take the pending legal action with Scarlet Johansson behind closed doors. Yet the actor and her legal representatives are, for the moment, responding in a very public fashion.
The matter is focused on Johansson’s contract for Black Widow, which she claims Disney reneged on when it elected to give the film a dual release, both in cinemas and on Disney+. This in turn negatively affected the actor’s backend deal for the film, and Johansson is therefore taking Disney to court for what she alleges is breach of contract.
Disney has attempted then to get the proceedings taken behind closed doors, but Johansson’s reprasentatives have hit back in strong fashion, stating: “after initially responding to this litigation with a misogynistic attack against Scarlett Johansson, Disney is now, predictably, trying to hide its misconduct in a confidential arbitration. Those are the words of Johansson’s main lawyer John Berlinski.
He continues: “Why is Disney so afraid of litigating this case in public? Because it knows that Marvel’s promises to give Black Widow a typical theatrical release ‘like its other films’ had everything to do with guaranteeing that Disney wouldn’t cannibalise box office receipts in order to boost Disney+ subscriptions. Yet that is exactly what happened – and we look forward to presenting the overwhelming evidence that proves it.”
Whilst it’s possible this never even gets to court, or remains behind closed doors if it does, for the moment, the publicity swirling around the matter is not good for Disney and it very much knows it. We’ll bring you more as we hear it.
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