Amazon Studios’ Roy Price Suspended Amid Sexual Harassment Claims; COO Albert Cheng Named Interim Boss
UPDATED: Amazon Studios boss Roy Price is going on a leave of absence, the company confirmed, amid details emerging of a 2015 incident involving Isa Hackett Dick, executive producer of Amazon’s The Man In The High Castle and upcoming Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams.
The suspension, which Deadline had earlier reported was expected, is effective immediately. Amazon said the studio’s COO Albert Cheng will take over the division on an interim basis.
The specifics of the Hackett Dick’s allegations against Price came out as the same time one of Weinstein’s main accusers, actress Rose McGowan, launched a scathing attack on Amazon via Twitter. In a rambling series of tweets addressed to Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos, she claims she had told the head of Amazon Studios — that would be Price — about being raped by Weinstein and urged the company not to “bailout” Weinstein, which she claims led to her Amazon project getting killed.
Hackett Dick, the daughter of Philip K. Dick, detailed to the Hollywood Reporter today exactly how and where Price propositioned her during Comic-Con 2015 in San Diego.
After downplaying the Price matter for months as being addressed internally and already dealt with following an independent investigation, Amazon for most of the day had been silent in responding to the specifics Hackett Dick told to THR weeks after the incident with Price first became public.
At the same time, Deadline has learned that attorney Lisa Bloom has left Price’s side. “My representation of Roy Price has concluded,” the former advisor to Harvey Weinstein told Deadline today. “It concluded before the producer went public,” she added.
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The online retail giant also was silent when a watered-down version of the story about the alleged 2015 incident involving Hackett Dick and Price appeared a month and a half ago on the online site The Information. Price continued to run the studio, which recently revealed that, upon orders from Bezos, is making a major course correction, putting an emphasis on finding a breakout genre drama of the size of Game Of Thrones. While launching a few series that had gotten traction, most notably the awards-winning Transparent and The Man In the High Castle, Amazon is still seeking a big, broad signature series.
Meanwhile, since the 2015 incident, Hackett Dick has continued her duties on Amazon’s The Man In the High Castle and sold a second show to the streaming network, the upcoming Electric Dreams.
Price had been at Amazon Studios since the very start, launching and building the TV division about five years ago.
Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report.
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