Disney Knew: Instead of Firing Executive, They Hired Staffer to Protect Women From Him

When John Lasseter took over Disney’s animation studios, it seemed fitting. As one of the co-founders of Pixar and the director of movies like “Toy Story,” “Cars” and “A Bug’s Life,” as well producing and shepherding many of the studio’s most successful works, Lasseter was arguably the most influential name in animation since… well, Walt Disney.

As we’ve so frequently discovered ever since The New York Times opened the floodgates with their report on Harvey Weinstein, Mr. Lasseter was not entirely as clean cut as he was made out to be. Last week, an exposé from The Hollywood Reporter revealed Lasseter made unwanted passes at stars, inappropriately touched female employees and was known for heavy drinking.

The Disney animation head is currently on a six-month “sabbatical” (the duration of which one imagines could elongate itself in coming weeks) after having “had a number of difficult conversations that have been very painful for me” and “agree(ing) the first step in that direction is for me to take some time away to reflect on how to move forward from here.”

Now that Lasseter is safely away from the Disney lot, the focus is turning to the company itself. New reports indicate that Disney knew about Lasseter’s tendencies to harass and make unwanted physical contact with female employees, so much so that they assigned a minder to the Pixar co-founder.

“There’s evidence Disney may well have been aware of troubling behavior on the part of the digital animation pioneer,” Deadline Hollywood reported late last week. “Indeed the Pixar co-founder attended some wrap parties with a handler to ensure he would not engage in inappropriate conduct with women, say two people with direct knowledge of the situation.”

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“Lasseter was observed passionately kissing a female subordinate at a 2010 Miramax party, according to an executive who witnessed the amorous display and another source who corroborated the account. The incident at the Oscar night celebration, attended by celebrities and Pixar and Disney executives, prompted high-level discussions about Lasseter’s conduct.”

Another bizarre story involved Lasseter’s treatment of “young character actresses portraying Disney’s Fairies, a product line built around the character of Tinker Bell.

“At the animator’s insistence, Disney flew the women to a New York event,” Deadline noted. “One Pixar employee became the designated escort as Lasseter took the young women out drinking one night, and to a party the following evening.

“He was inappropriate with the fairies,” the executive said, adding that Lasseter would often give them long hugs. “We had to have someone make sure he wasn’t alone with them.”

One employee quoted wondered whether the contact was sexual in nature or just bizarre behavior on the part of Lasseter.

“He’s very tactile in a weird way,” an anonymous female executive said. “He would rub my leg in a meeting … It was creepy and weird. It got to the point where I wouldn’t sit next to him in a meeting, because it undermined everything I said.”

While not precisely Lauer-esque in its arrant depravity, Lasseter’s conduct is still unusually bizarre; one does not develop that kind of bizarre obsession with young actresses dressed up in Tinkerbell-like attire without some sort of severe emotional misfire taking place.

Leaving Lasseter and his multitude of alleged quasi-paraphilias alone for a moment, let’s talk about Disney’s role in this. Genius though he may be — and of the individuals caught up in the post-Weinstein perv-shaming extravaganza, Lasseter is clearly the most talented — the fact that Disney allowed him to roam the halls of their corporate offices even knowing he was a danger to every female employee he came into contact with raises serious issues of liability here.

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It’s unlikely we yet know the full extent of Lasseter’s transgressions — or, in fact, what Disney knew about them. However, given what we know now and the fact that Disney refused to fire him, this could turn into one giant legal headache for the House of Mouse.

H/T Breitbart

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