Why one Hollywood expert wants to ‘burn down’ the industry

Actors and writers are striking over basic workplace protections and pay models used by movie studios and streaming companies, as well as these employers’ use of artificial intelligence. But the conditions underlying these workers’ dissatisfaction (and they are workers, even if their work looks more glamorous than most) go back decades, says Maureen Ryan, author of Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywoo d, a scathing new book on the entertainment industry’s pervasive workplace problems. From Harvey Weinstein to #OscarsSoWhite, waves of reckonings have laid bare just how toxic Hollywood often is as a workplace—and inequality, discrimination, and harassment remain rampant across the industry. 

“There is this huge cultural myth that, because people are pursuing artistic or creative goals, Hollywood has some higher purpose—and a better reputation,” Ryan told me in an interview. “As a whole,” she added, “the industry has used that false perception to cover up a multitude of sins.”

RoGina Williams-Montgomery/courtesy of Maureen Ryan

I spoke with Ryan, a veteran reporter and TV critic who’s currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, for a recent Coins2Day feature about the death of the Hollywood “dream job.” She told me that the idea for her book hit in early 2021, as she was reporting on industry misconduct and rage-texting a friend about her findings: “I remember looking at the screen and realizing, ‘If you take out the swearing, this is a book proposal.’”

At the same time, in the post-#MeToo era, “I had the sense that people were tired of stories about misconduct,” Ryan acknowledges. “I get it, because I get tired of it.”

Her solution was to marry her larger thesis about these ongoing, systemic problems with a high-minded version of Hollywood gossip: juicy, headline-grabbing, deep reporting about the awful things that were really going on behind the scenes of your favorite TV show. It’s a thoughtful, and compulsively readable, approach that got results: After Vanity Fair ran a Burn It Down excerpt about the hit show Lost, Ryan’s reporting went viral—and vaulted her book onto the New York Times bestseller list.

Several weeks later, Ryan told me she’s been “really heartened” by the response to her book—but she’s also even more aware of the broken economic models and causes of “massive” worker frustration fueling the current Hollywood strikes. 

“This industry will break your heart every time,” she told me. “Maybe that should have been the title of my book.”

Read more of my interview with Ryan here. 

Maria Aspan
[email protected]
@mariaaspan

The Broadsheet is Coins2Day’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- A second suspension. Florida State Attorney Monique Worrell is the second democratically-elected prosecutor suspended from office by Gov. Ron Desantis, who claimed she had a pattern of “neglect of duty and incompetence." Worrell, who plans to fight the suspension, responded: “I am your duly-elected state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit. Nothing done by a weak dictator can change that.” CNN

- Fenty for all. Rihanna, who’s currently pregnant with her second child, has dropped a new capsule of stylish maternity clothes under her Savage X Fenty line. The singer and businesswomen said that the new line, which includes new bralette styles and an oversized graphic tee, “is about bringing that confidence and comfort to moms at every stage of their journeys.” Vogue

- House and home. Yang Huiyan, one of China's wealthiest women and the CEO of Chinese housing developer juggernaut Country Garden, could be bracing for disaster. A looming public default on unpaid coupon payments could roil the company, which has $199 billion in liabilities, and China's housing market at large. Coins2Day

- Teaming up. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is pushing for the league to expand, saying in a press conference that, "with a league that's the longest-tenured women's professional league in the country by double any other, we need more than 12 teams." Cities that are under consideration for WNBA teams are Nashville, Toronto, Austin, Denver, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Portland, and the Bay Area. Front Office Sports

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Sara Devitt has joined Dedrone as chief people officer. Kiran Dhanuka  is the new chief customer officer at MasterControl. Collective Health has named Kim Shepard SVP of client success.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- Need for speed. Over a quarter of all Ferrari sales in China are to female owners, far more than in any other country. Property entrepreneurs and tech execs are among the women flocking for Ferraris in China, a country that’s second in the world for billionaires. Bloomberg

- Workplace divided. Companies that announced they would pay for employees to travel to different states to receive an abortion, if necessary, saw an 8% increase in applications. Employees in male dominated jobs, however, started giving their companies worse reviews. Coins2Day

- One-woman show. Yana Abramova is one of very few female general partners in European venture capital and singlehandedly runs her own VC firm, Pretiosum Ventures. Confidence in her decision making is surging right now as Pretiosum, which invests in infrastructure startups, is on its way to what could be a $20 million second fund. TechCrunch

ON MY RADAR

How an Oscar-winning costume designer got where she is today Teen Vogue

The future of rap is female New York Times

Sydney Sweeney takes control: the Euphoria star on ‘feeling beat up’ by online rumors and proving people wrong in her producer era Variety

PARTING WORDS

“I get driven and angry, but these are the kinds of things that make me want to get up in the morning.”

—Fashion designer Stella McCartney on working through setbacks