I legit don't think the timing of this news could've been any worse, with the announcement of Feige and Jenkins' projects being mercilessly axed. Whether you hate LFL or you simp for them, this is an awful, awful look for them right now.
If you want a breakdown the lawsuit, apparently this McCarthy lady turned down a high-paying gig at Apple producing a series called Sugar, which she had to back out of due to LucasFilm wanting her as a producer on the upcoming High Republic-set Acolyte series on Disney Plus. According to her, LFL's contract demanded a "long-term commitment" to the series, which would prevent her from even taking new contracts like the Apple one at a later date.
And then out of fucking nowhere, two weeks into shooting the Acolyte, "without explanation, without reason, without justification, Lucasfilm told McCarthy it wanted out of the deal", which was an unbelievably shitty move since this was not only a breach of LFL's contract, but also because by this point, "Apple's offer was gone, as they had to move on and find for Sugar", ensuring that McCarthy now "had neither deal".
Oh, but it gets worse. Because then LFL just decided not to pay her for her two weeks of work. Well, unless you call a pittance of $5,000 sufficient wages for two weeks of production work. And what does LFL due when McCarthy calls them out on this? Well...
"Lucasfilm denied that they even had an agreement, even though (1) they had made their offer, containing all of the material deal points; (20 McCarthy accepted that offer; (3) Lucasfilm had McCarthy start right away; and (4) Lucasfilm sent to McCarthy a memorandum of agreement, memorializing the terms including that McCarthy had already commenced working, In further disregard of McCarthy and the work she had already done, Lucasfilm offered to pay McCarthy $5,000 for a single day’s work."
No, you didn't misread that. They got two weeks of work out of this woman, but are only paying for one day of work. This isn't new territory for Disney/LFL. After all, this is the same company who tried to duck out of paying Alan Dean Foster his deserved royalties for years, making money off of work he wasn't being compensated for. But the difference is that McCarthy isn't a cancer-ridden 76-year-old man, and is not only pushing with a lawsuit, but airing all of this quite publicly, to ensure that everyone can see what kind of cavalcade of assholes inhabit LucasFilm's corporate hierarchy.
You know, it's funny; for a company that spends so much time chestbeating on social media about the vitality, diversity and inclusion, and about how "The Force is Female" and how "Women Run The Star Wars Universe"...LucasFilm certainly seems awful squeamish about paying their female employees for their work.
Seems like all that female empowerment stops at the door. Who'd have thunk it, right?
