Sydney Sweeney Isn’t Taking Veteran Producer’s Attacks Lying Down

This week, veteran Hollywood producer Carol Baum needlessly told an audience at a film screening that she “[doesn’t] get Sydney Sweeney.” Baum, who teaches a production class at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, also said that she’s asked her students to explain Sweeney to her, since she’s “not pretty” and “can’t act.”

The comments were pretty out of left field, especially given how harsh they were and the fact that Sweeney and Baum have never worked together. But lest you thought all of this would quickly fade into the background, on Wednesday evening, Sweeney’s camp offered a response. “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” a representative for the actress said in a statement to People. “If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”

Fair! I am all for women fighting or hating each other over legitimate things, but just publicly calling someone ugly and talentless for no reason except to be rude and dismissive definitely warrants a response like this from Sweeney. As for Baum’s question to her class about why people find Sweeney “hot,” maybe the answer is that she is extremely hot and can also craft a hell of a response??

Sweeney made her producing debut on her rom-com Anyone But You in 2023, followed by Immaculate, which premiered in March, both of which she also starred in. Incidentally, Baum’s apparent disdain for Anyone But You seems to have sparked this pop-up feud. “I was watching [Anyone But You] on the plane… I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her,” Baum told the film screening audience, before calling Sweeney’s movie “unwatchable.”

Baum has since reportedly told TMZ she regrets her comments about Sweeney but hasn’t publicly jumped back into the matter.

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