Look, I get it, we’ve now spent far too much time covering the Jane Got a Gun story*. But I’m always fascinated by the lengths people in the film business will go for even the most trivial of positive spin. These are people who do seem to truly believe that everyone in the world reads Nikki Finke. Which brings us to Jane Got a Gun producer Scott Steindorff, who’s been giving quotes to Deadline all week about how shocked he was when director Lynne Ramsay dropped out of the movie. SHOCKED! And she left with nary a reason, I’m sure. And now, apparently, Steindorff has his assistant emailing people to get more positive comments on the story.
“My boss will kill me if it’s not at least 40 comments!”
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable guy who’d never lie about a work feud, right? “Hurry up, you guys! Star those dog pics my boss put up on instagram or he’s going to start flipping over tables! I’m telling you, he’s craz– OH GOD HE’S IN THE ROOM!”
DISCLAIMER: I was forwarded the email from a tipster, so obviously I can’t completely verify that it was sent or written by the person it purports to be. Obviously. But I did do a cursory search, and the name listed as sender does work with Scott Steindorff. So at the very least, if it was a fake tipster out to smear a guy none of you had even heard of yesterday, at least he did his homework. As for posting the email, hey, they did say to pass it on to their friends. I mean, I do have a conscience, I’d feel really bad if the assistant got in trouble over this, but I feel like people should know what her boss is like, especially when he’s going around town trashing someone else.
*The short version is that Lynne Ramsay supposedly walked off the film on the first day of shooting and was replaced by Gavin O’Connor, but not before co-star Jude Law bailed too. Deadline covered the story from the beginning, always with lengthy quotes from producer Scott Steindorff, who is obviously Deadline’s source for the story, and Steindorff painted it as if it was all Lynne Ramsay’s fault for being unprofessional, irresponsible, and/or crazy. Surely there was more to the story than that, but we don’t know, because Ramsay hasn’t commented.
[picture source: TopNews.In]