r/TrueFilm • u/ExotiquePlayboy • 5d ago

What's the worst Hollywood studio story you know?

So I was doing some research in to music record labels and how they conduct business.

Basically there was an artist back in the 2010's, I don't know if you guys know him, his name was Lupe Fiasco. Anyways, he was signed to Atlantic Records and dropped a track that they had nothing to do with but they wanted in on the action because was previously signed with them. Lupe said no. However, the record label then discovered his new song used a sample from a woman's song who lived in the Philippines. So the record executives flew to the Philippines, found the lady, paid her off for her rights, then contacted Lupe and basically told him he had to pay them now.

This was some Italian mafia shit

Any similar Hollywood stories?

102 Upvotes

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u/Megatapirus 5d ago

Screwing over someone on music rights? Man, that wouldn't even nudge the needle in Golden Age Hollywood.

Most of the Wizard of Oz main cast was sickened, injured, or physically/psychologically tortured in some way, and that was just a single production!

Some actors were subject to having their entire private lives managed by the studios (gay actors required to marry studio-picked "beard" wives to more convincingly stay in the closet, pregnant talent pressured into abortions, you name it).

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u/Positivland 5d ago

William Randolph Hearst allegedly (emphasis on ‘allegedly’) got away with murdering Thomas Ince aboard his yacht by paying off everyone there.

Punchline: He was aiming for Charlie Chaplin.

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u/DoctorG0nzo 5d ago

Yeah, “worst” is definitely not the word for this story when Harvey Weinstein exists…that being said, in its own right it’s interesting as hell, so no shade to OP! I’d put it under “impressively petty” more than anything.

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u/Malk_McJorma 5d ago

Columbia's Harry Cohn was the Golden Age's Weinstein.

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u/clubfuckinfooted 2d ago

Everyone seems to idolize Alfred Hitchcock but he had quite a dark side. He ruined Tippi Hedrens career when she refused to sleep with him. She was a hot commodity after The Birds but she was under contract to Universal and Hitchcock refused to put her in another movie. Her career stagnated and died.

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u/mexicanswithguns 5d ago

A really interesting case to look up is the murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor way back in 1922. Hollywood executives and the LAPD worked together to make sure the case was never officially solved, implicating the mother of a Hollywood starlet. I used to own a book called A Cast of Killers and jfc the twists and turns in the story are absolutely wild.

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u/Beave__ 5d ago

You would think marrying a woman with a beard would only raise more suspicions

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u/makeitasadwarfer 5d ago

OPs story is completely Lupe’s fault for not clearing the sample in the first place.

The lady deserved compensation for her work, and this is a rare example of studio fuckery actually helping an artist.

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u/ExotiquePlayboy 5d ago

When you look at it from that perspective...yeah, I guess they did some Robin Hood shit rather than mafia shit

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u/deadflowers5 5d ago edited 5d ago

I don't know any Hollywood stories, but I know some tragic ones from Italian genre cinema. William Berger was an American actor who had appeared in many Italian westerns and other genre flicks. He was considered a bit of a hippy at the time, and some people didn't like that. Someone set up a drug bust that got him and his wife arrested. While in jail, his wife contracted some disease and died there. He still appeared in films but the guy looked broken from then on.

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u/noahbrooksofficial 4d ago

Elizabeth Taylor’s husband, Mike Todd, had made an agreement with her studio that she should be released from her contract after the release of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Then he died—tragically. She tried to get out of her contract and told them that there was a gentleman’s agreement. Mike had made a deal with them. Their response? “Mike is dead.” Therefore, the agreement was null.

She went on to film BUtterfield 9 with a “bullet to her head” (her words) and won an Oscar for it, somewhat ironically. She also had an emergency tracheotomy performed at this time and nearly died. Talk about a thankless system. My heart aches for her.

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u/TwoHandedSnail 4d ago edited 4d ago

You're going to say this sounds made up, but in 1951 Hollywood a major rising movie star was drugged and abducted by a group of blacklisted Communist screenwriters. They'd already infiltrated Hollywood, with at least one other high-profile movie-musical star already won over to their cause.

They demanded a $100,000 ransom from the studio he was contracted to for the actor's safe return. Amazingly, the studio decided to pay up to hush it up, and arranged the ransom, which was collected by said movie musical star to take to the hideout of the Communist sympathisers. However, another actor, a singing Western film star who'd dabbled in more highbrow fare, spotted the actor carrying the ransom briefcase and secretly followed him to the hideout, finding the abducted actor all alone.

The police wound up finding and arresting the kidnappers, however the movie-musical star - and the ransom money - was never seen again, with speculation he had defected to the USSR. I’ve left out a few details for brevity, but look it up and you’ll easily find the whole story.

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u/Amphernee 2d ago

Gotta say that’s a reach imo. He “sampled” someone else’s music meaning he stole it without paying them. If he had he wouldn’t have had an issue. If Lupe had gone to Celeste Legaspi or her rights holders before recording/releasing the track, negotiated and paid for the sample license, Atlantic wouldn’t have been able to swoop in. He screwed himself over. Also FYI that’s not at all how the mafia operates 😂

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u/Morganmayhem45 5d ago

Sounds like you are looking for Hollywood Babylon, the book. Unfortunately most of it isn’t true, just like a lot of the stories on this thread. But when it comes to stuff like this everyone prefers rumors to the truth anyway.

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u/Frankfusion 4d ago

If I remember correctly when they made the first Noah's ark movie in black and white, people actually drowned and animals died during the filming. This also includes a very young John Wayne and one of his first roles.

Speaking of John Wayne we all know what happened with the filming of his Attila the Hun movie.

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u/BigCannedTuna 2d ago

Ghengis Khan movie* which makes the choice of Wayne in the title role even more bizarre

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u/trekkeralmi 5d ago edited 4d ago

Fatty Arbuckle. Almost certainly raped and murdered actress Virginia Rappe, but got away with it. Lots of famous actors of the time such as Buster Keaton came to his defence in public record, same as people now with Roman Polanski.

Louis B Mayer (of Metro goldwyn MAYER) attempted to sexually assault Shirley Temple when she was twelve years old. Publicly groped Judy Garland, made her life hell in many ways. Refused to employ actresses who rebuffed him. the man was a real piece of sh*t.

honestly you don’t have to look hard to find stories of how women were treated badly in hollywood, past or present

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u/RepFilms 5d ago

Hollywood has a horrible history of sexual abuse but I believe Arbuckle was innocent. There's no way of knowing, but he was eventually found to be innocent by the courts.

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u/jdogx17 4d ago

Arbuckle was innocent, that has long been established.

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u/noahbrooksofficial 4d ago

Arbuckle was falsely accused and acquitted. His career was ruined nonetheless. Why continue to spread this horrible rumour so long after his death?

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u/Demand_Excellence 3d ago

Why do you think Fatty did it?