OPINION:
Disney is in trouble. An actress last week filed a major sex-discrimination lawsuit against the 100-year-old movie studio with the financial backing of billionaire Elon Musk. Meanwhile, the South African-born entrepreneur was also seen in Los Angeles with Nelson Peltz, an activist investor eager to wrest the keys to the Magic Kingdom from CEO Bob Iger.
“I’m just here with friends, thinking about companies to acquire,” Mr. Musk said at the red-carpet premiere of “Lola,” which he attended with Mr. Peltz.
Mr. Peltz wants to buy The Walt Disney Co. because, in his view, the current management team is running the company into the ground. Even the prospect of a hostile takeover attempt hasn’t been enough to encourage Disney executives to change their ways.
Last week’s earnings report showed content sales and licensing revenue down 38% compared with the previous year. “The increase in operating loss was due to the performance of ‘The Marvels’ and ‘Wish’ in the current quarter,” the report explained.
Both movies bombed in large part because Disney rejected its family-friendly roots in favor of pushing more fashionable, left-wing storylines with its films. Its obsession with catering to the “woke” compelled the company to fire actor Gina Carano, a fan favorite in Disney’s “Mandalorian” television series, after she made a clumsy analogy in a tweet intended to encourage people of all political views to get along.
Her free thinking didn’t go over well in Burbank.
Ms. Carano’s lawsuit points to politically charged tweets from “Mandalorian” star Pedro Pascal, who is still employed, even though his posts compared Republicans to Nazis. California labor law forbids firing people over their political views.
While suits of this sort are typically settled out of court, Mr. Musk has the financial muscle to bring the complaint to trial.
That means Disney would be compelled to release relevant documents in the discovery process.
“They have been blatantly racist, sexist and censorious for years, which means there is a vast treasure trove of emails/texts/slack/etc.,” Mr. Musk tweeted.
As the owner of X, Mr. Musk has an interest in ensuring prominent users aren’t punished for engaging on his platform. He also developed a grudge against Mr. Iger after Disney pulled advertising from X once Mr. Musk ended the prior management’s policy of censoring conservative thought.
Beyond that, Mr. Musk loves comic books. He even had a cameo role in “Iron Man 2.” He is unhappy with where Mr. Iger’s team has taken the brand, blaming the recent crop of cinematic flops on “mandatory, institutionalized racism and sexism” at Disney.
Mr. Musk published documents purporting to show Disney’s “inclusion standards” allocating acting roles and other film project positions based on factors like skin color under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“No wonder most of their content produced over the past several years has sucked,” the billionaire tweeted. “Just trying to navigate the DEI minefield is going to crush the creative process!”
There’s a chance that the mischievous Mr. Musk wasn’t serious when he suggested he might boost the bid of Mr. Peltz to buy the iconic movie studio. But he would be doing a great service to the nation if he follows through.
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