Wannabe Bond Villain Pushing His Second Wife for Next Bond Girl
“This isn’t just fantasy casting—Jeff wants her on screen, period," a source told Rob Shuter’s Substack.
Photo Credit: Stefano Mazzola/GC Images Dirt Bag
Oligarchs are an existential threat to every industry, but film seems to be in particular trouble these days. The latest who and why? Jeff Bezos, whose Amazon empire bought complete creative control of the James Bond franchise earlier this year. According to a new report published by Rob Shuter’s #ShuterScoop (a Substack newsletter), the newly remarried billionaire is campaigning for his blushing bride, Lauren Sánchez, to be the next Bond girl.
A woman with exactly zero acting credits (or presence or charisma) might just get one of the most iconic (if fairly fucked-up) roles in film history simply because her husband wants her to. Women really can have it all—if their husband’s business MO is total business and culture saturation, not unlike that of the franchise’s legendary villains.
“He’s obsessed,” someone Shuter deemed “a Hollywood insider” said. “This isn’t just fantasy casting—Jeff wants her on screen, period.” Can’t these people just be happy staying on their $500 million superyacht?
Rumors have abounded about who will be cast as the next Bond since Daniel Craig‘s contract came to an end. In February, Bezos posed the question on Twitter, and while there’s still no answer on that front, apparently there is a lot of billionaire pressure on who his love interest will be, per Shuter’s sources.
“She’s not an actress,” a studio executive told Shuter. “But she’s Jeff’s muse, and when you spend $8 billion, you get what you want.” (Bezos actually shelled out more than $8 billion; Amazon bought MGM—the studio that owns the rights to Bond—for $8.45 billion, and then reportedly paid an additional $1 billion to gain creative control of the franchise.)