Inside Disney: How the Bob Iger-Bob Chapek Rift Led to the ScarJo Blunder
Turns out that corporate rifts have consequences. It’s an open secret in Hollywood that Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger and CEO Bob Chapek have been estranged for months, dating back to the very start of last year’s pandemic. Now the consequences of that estrangement are becoming clear. My sources tell me that Iger and Chapek do not interact regularly. But that is pretty damn obvious, given the embarrassing lawsuit that Scarlett Johansson filed last week, accusing Disney of breaching her contract for box office-based profit participation on “Black Widow” after the movie was released day-and-date on Disney’s streaming service Disney+. And worse, there was that insane foot-in-mouth response to the lawsuit in which a spokesperson for a company that laid off 32,000 workers last year officially castigated Johansson for “callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.” And then revealed her $20 million based salary. (Excuse me, what???) I talked with a half-dozen executives familiar with Disney and its culture. It seems that Iger either intentionally allowed Chapek to shoot himself in the foot with Johansson’s team by failing to step in and negotiate an alternative to a lawsuit, or that he is so disconnected from his...
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