Former Amazon exec Roy Price is transparently awful

By Gwen Ihnat | October 18, 2017 | 5:26pm

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While the allegations against Harvey Weinstein have been pouring in fast and furious since The New York Times first published its exposé on the ousted studio head almost two weeks ago, many have indicated that Weinstein may be only the tip of that particular disgusting iceberg. Kate Beckinsale, for example, who had her own unfortunate encounters with Weinstein, called him “an emblem of a system that is sick.”

Unsurprisingly, other Hollywood executives contributed to that sick system. Next up on the chopping block was Amazon head Roy Price. He was suspended after The Hollywood Reporter published accusations by producer Isa Hackett, who said that at the 2015 Comic-Con in San Diego: “Price is alleged to have told Hackett, ‘You will love my dick’ and loudly said ‘anal sex!’ in her ear.” He subsequently stepped down from Amazon on Tuesday.

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Now The Hollywood Reporter has released its own dossier on Price, with a variety of unsavory anecdotes indicating Price’s status as a garbage human. Not only was Price working with Weinstein on a “$75 million anthology series from Matthew Weiner and a now-canceled $160 million drama series from David O. Russell,” it appears that he had more in common with Weinstein than these projects.

Amazon, it turns out, has been aware of allegations against Price since Hackett reported her accusations in 2015. Soon after that Comic-Con incident, Price went for drinks with TriStar TV executive Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, then-Amazon development executive Carolyn Newman and Amazon’s then-head of hourlong programming, Morgan Wandell, following a table read for Good Girls Revolt. Price reportedly quickly turned the conversation toward the women’s sexual histories and experiences with drug use. Patmore Gibbs calls the conversation “awkward and uncomfortable,” and the women quickly fled.

Amazon, along with Netflix, HBO, and Showtime, was also in the running for the prestige mini-series Big Little Lies. THR reports that at a staff holiday party in Hollywood, “Price asked a group of staffers if the two stars [Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman] would ‘show their tits’ and mused aloud why he would greenlight the show if they didn’t.” Big Little Lies went to HBO, where it won eight Emmys for the cable network.

Amazon has come up with some development deals related to women-run and -based shows, like Jill Solloway’s Transparent and I Love Dick, Christina Ricci’s Z: The Beginning Of Everything, and the new production deal for Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel, resulting in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. But THR points out “with Price at the helm, most of Amazon’s shows have seemed to be aimed primarily at men, including Sneaky Pete, Bosch, and American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story.” Good Girls Revolt, along with Z, didn’t last past a season. Price also gave Woody Allen an $80 million deal for the execrable six-episode comedy Crisis In Six Scenes.

Price also had his own programming ideas:

Aspiring script writer Yale Hannon produced one outline with scribes Evan Spiliotopoulos and Raven Metzner also having written versions. In the draft written by Hannon, obtained by THR, Shanghai Snow follows a young woman named Cindy who is sold into sex slavery. Under the control of a “psychotic imperial Thai dwarf” named Mr. Goodtimes, Cindy is drugged, beaten with a machete and told she will be “fucked like a dead fish.”

While the writers attempted to get the misogynistic aspects minimized from the script, let’s hope that with Price stepping down, Shanghai Snow, at least, will never see the light of day.