Brittany Kaplan has accused Leisure Weekly’s fired top editor, J.D. Heyman, of joking about the Holocaust and engaging in racist and sexist actions in a lawsuit against the journal and its proprietor DotDash Meredith.
Among the other allegations in the lawsuit submitted Tuesday by Kaplan, a senior editor at EW, Heyman is reported to have identified as singer Jewel “snaggletooth” while insulting her for previously staying homeless. Kaplan also states Heyman argued against placing Black talent on the Black Historical past Thirty day period version of EW simply because he needed the protect to be “joyous.” The lawsuit also states Entertainment Weekly tried to continue to keep issues in opposition to Heyman out of public perspective.
Kaplan shared various other allegations about Heyman mishandling EW addresses. She states he created unspecified “jokes about the Holocaust” and deliberately disregarded Kristen Stewart’s request that she not be highlighted on the June 2020 Pleasure Month magazine deal with. Kaplan also states Heyman “torpedoed” a opportunity Ryan Reynolds deal with “because Mr. Reynolds wished his various costars on the address with him.”
“As the ongoing wave of civil unrest flooded the United States in the Summer season of 2020, Mr. Reynolds graciously tried to use his fame to amplify his assorted co-stars’ name, image and likeness,” the lawsuit states. “Mr. Heyman claimed that the include would be too complicated to pull off with the a few stars.”
Rather, the address “featured six white people” and one member of the BIPOC group.
Afterwards that yr, Heyman put the late Chadwick Boseman on a deal with of EW “over the express objection of his family’s agent,” the match alleges.
Kaplan says she “made different internal complaints” about Heyman’s behavior. Though no action in opposition to Heyman was taken at the time, Kaplan suggests she “was sidelined and stripped of practically all of her responsibilities,” and “was denied a promised title advertising and fork out increase.”
“Today’s submitting is the regrettable end result of not only EW’s alleged discriminatory and retaliatory conduct, but also its utter unwillingness to take accountability for its perform,” Kaplan’s attorney, Wigdor LLP Partner Michael Willemin, stated in a statement on Wednesday. “Ms. Kaplan has attempted for several years to resolve the topic of today’s lawsuit quick of litigation, but her inner grievances, even people produced immediately after we had been retained to represent her, fell on deaf ears. Thus, Ms. Kaplan was still left with no alternative but to file this motion and hopes that EW will engage in the introspection required to remedy the continuing wrongs outlined in the criticism.”
A representative for Leisure Weekly and DotDash Meredith did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for remark.
Very last year, Heyman was fired right after many senior staffers submitted complaints with the company’s human means department accusing Heyman of developing a hostile place of work by belittling staffers and creating “inappropriate” and “racially insensitive” feedback.
According to quite a few persons with information of the situations, at the very least eight senior EW staff members banded with each other to file complaints above the previous various months and many documented their scenario with email messages as well as recordings.
Tensions experienced been creating at EW for some time. A former Meredith worker who worked with Heyman instructed TheWrap that Heyman’s blunt administration design and style designed an instant “culture clash” from the instant he took around as EW’s editor in chief in June 2019 from beloved longtime editor Henry Goldblatt. The specific reported the staff felt “whiplash” from Heyman’s “cynical” demeanor next Goldblatt’s additional “earnest” method.
