Sydney Sweeney fires back at producer who says she’s ‘not pretty’

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Sydney Sweeney might be one of the hottest names in Hollywood, but the new ‘it girl’ found herself the subject of some very unkind remarks when a veteran Hollywood producer declared she’s “not pretty” and “can’t act.”

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Carol Baum, a film executive who worked on such films as Dead Ringers, Father of the Bride, Fly Away Home and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was speaking at an event alongside New York Times film critic Janet Maslin last week with the Daily Mail quoting her as saying: “There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie (Anyone But You) because I wanted to watch it. I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this … romantic comedy where they hate each other.”

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Baum then mentioned the producing course she teaches at the University of Southern California. “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer. But then the question was asked, ‘Well, if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’ … That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”

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As Baum’s comments made the rounds online, Sweeney, 26, a two-time Emmy nominee who stars on HBO’s Euphoria, fired back at the Hollywood vet calling her remarks “sad.”

“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” a representative for Sweeney tells Entertainment Weekly. “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.”

Sydney’s colleagues have also spoken out in support of the actress with her Immaculate producer Teddy Schwarzman calling Baum’s comments “terribly ugly.”

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“I’ll enlighten Ms Baum that two-time Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney is not only one of the most talented actresses I’ve worked with, but also incredibly smart, kind and humble,” Schwarzman wrote on X.

The Guardian piled on saying that Baum’s attack “played into men’s hands.”

“It’s disheartening to see an older woman acting like some men presume all older women secretly think all the time,” writer Barbara Ellen opined. “That we’re all just a bunch of embittered harridans who delight in attacking younger women. That we love nothing better than to pluck the wings off the nubile hotties who soak up all the male attention and make us feel bad about ourselves.”

After the backlash, her ears no doubt ringing, Baum told TMZ she regretted her assessment of Sweeney’s burgeoning career. 

“She wishes she never would’ve made her original comments,” the outlet said, “Crapping on an actor like that in public usually isn’t her style.”

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