Social Gina Carano sues Disney for wrongful termination, funded by Elon Musk

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

LOL at the intro. I wonder how many hundreds (thousands?) of $ an hour these lawyers are making for this?

INTRODUCTION A short time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought, speech, or action was acceptable in their empire, and that those who dared to question or failed to fully comply would not be tolerated. And so it was with Carano. After two highly acclaimed seasons on The Mandalorian as Rebel ranger Cara Dune, Carano was terminated from her role as swiftly as her character’s peaceful home planet of Alderaan had been destroyed by the Death Star in an earlier Star Wars film. And all this because she dared voice her own opinions, on social media platforms and elsewhere, and stood up to the online bully mob who demanded her compliance with their extreme progressive ideology.

Defendants’ wrath over their employees’ social media posts also differed depending on sex. Even though “the Force is female,” Defendants chose to target a woman while looking the other way when it came to men. While Carano was fired, Defendants took no action against male actors who took equally or more vigorous and controversial positions on social media.

But the rule of law still reigns over the Defendants’ empire. And Carano has returned to demand that they be held accountable for their bullying, discriminatory, and retaliatory actions—actions that inflicted not only substantial emotional harm, but millions of dollars in lost income.

Jesus Christ, they must have really lax rules on professional decorum in pleadings in California. If a lawyer in Canada tried to insert such theatrics into the actual pleadings they’d probably catch a lot of shit for it from the clerks and the judge.

 

[nhbbear]

I was being accused of hating cops. You know that isn't true, right? Have I ever shown law enforcement anything but respect? I suspect you even share my belief a lot of reform is required, but I never blame all officers for everything.

Yeah, yeah. I am fucking with you. You and I both agree and disagree-depends on the topic.

 

[nhbbear]

I’m not following why you think that all those instances of other actors getting a pass suggests that she has a case. Everyone knows she was shit canned for her politics, and that’s exactly why she’ll lose, because legally Disney was entitled to do so. Political leaning is not a protected class under human rights legislation. This matter could go all the way to trial and Gina’s lawyer could get up and make this glorious closing argument reminiscent of Paul Newman in the verdict and summarize that the real reason Gina was fired was because she’s conservative. Meanwhile, in rebuttal Disney’s lawyer can just be like this:

and then Disney wins the case.

Maybe. Maybe not. She would have to be careful how they frame it. I said she “may” have a case. I am not dying on this hill. My whole point was to point out that other actors that work for Disney have said equal or worse things and are still there. They may settle just to make it go away. With musk backing her, it’s not like she can’t afford to keep it going and drag them through the mud and air dirty laundry. And believe me, I know that political viewpoint is not a protected class. While getting my masters degree, I took a course where hate crimes were the bulk of the discussion. The case law, the federal law act, etc. I also mentioned that this is NOT a freedom of speech case. One poster said she had multiple warnings, but the only place I have seen that was based on his postings-so I don’t know the particulars. I don’t care enough to look it up at this point, but the whole thread idea got me curious enough to see how many Disney actors have said stupid shit and didn’t get canned. Turns out, there’s a lot of them.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I'm sorry I assumed Disney was in Florida and this would be a Florida case, not a federal jurisdiction. But she sued under the federal jurisdiction I think it's thr 9th circuit?

Complaint

Why would you assume it would be Florida? Disney’s corporate headquarters and its actual studios are in Burbank, California. As far as I’m aware Disney only has some of its theme parks and resort hotels in Florida, and that it has no studios out there.

 

[Limeade]

Why would you assume it would be Florida? Disney’s corporate headquarters and its actual studios are in Burbank, California. As far as I’m aware Disney only has some of its theme parks and resort hotels in Florida, and that it has no studios out there.

For some reason I thought the studio lot and production was in Florida. Clearly I was wrong.

 

[blaseblase]

Maybe. Maybe not. She would have to be careful how they frame it. I said she “may” have a case. I am not dying on this hill. My whole point was to point out that other actors that work for Disney have said equal or worse things and are still there. They may settle just to make it go away. With musk backing her, it’s not like she can’t afford to keep it going and drag them through the mud and air dirty laundry. And believe me, I know that political viewpoint is not a protected class. While getting my masters degree, I took a course where hate crimes were the bulk of the discussion. The case law, the federal law act, etc. I also mentioned that this is NOT a freedom of speech case. One poster said she had multiple warnings, but the only place I have seen that was based on his postings-so I don’t know the particulars. I don’t care enough to look it up at this point, but the whole thread idea got me curious enough to see how many Disney actors have said stupid shit and didn’t get canned. Turns out, there’s a lot of them.

Nobody else has raised as much controversy as Carano did, let alone refused to stop doing so.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

I'm sorry I assumed Disney was in Florida and this would be a Florida case, not a federal jurisdiction. But she sued under the federal jurisdiction I think it's thr 9th circuit?

Complaint

There was Disneyland before Disneyworld...

 

[LangfordBarrow]

Why would you assume it would be Florida? Disney’s corporate headquarters and its actual studios are in Burbank, California. As far as I’m aware Disney only has some of its theme parks and resort hotels in Florida, and that it has no studios out there.

I didn’t realize this until I was in my 20's since Disney in Orlando is where my family went on vacation.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

I won't lie I was really hoping she would go the OF route. I guess she's letting Elon bang her

 

[HereticBD]

Nobody else has raised as much controversy as Carano did, let alone refused to stop doing so.

I doubt that's what it will come down to, but Disney employs thousands. Not just stars. I don't think it would be too hard to find an employee with a far worse social media history than her.

That said, I don't think she has much of a case. They can fire you for practically anything. As long as they pay you what you're owed, it's pretty much settled, unless Disney fired you for reporting a rape or some shit. There's no actual lawful standard for terminating a contract in this manner. Actors get fired all the time for all sorts of reasons laid out in the contract they sign, which I'm going to guess includes something vague along the lines of "representing the company in a negative manner". They could fire her for being too fat for her role, if they wanted to. If they deem you "bad for business" for whatever reason, you're done. They fired Johnny Depp for PR reasons, that was actually built on lies. Last I checked, he ain't suing them.

 

[Paynebringer]

The Mandalorian vs The Republican

 

[Blayt7hh]

Well Gina, those people can act.

I thought she was good in the show

 

[Sinister]

I thought she was good in the show

She was good because the limitations of the characrer fit her pretty well. The role didnt demand a lot of her. Be a thicc soldier girl with a big f*ckin gun, he disgruntled, kick some @ss. All things well within her wheelhouse.

 

[Helden]

I thought she was good in the show

Only in the non speaking scenes. And maybe neutral dialogue scenes where emotion wasn't needed.

The episode her character was introduces had some of the cringiest acting moments, I'd be embarrassed to be caught watching.

 

[GtehMVP]

As an irl labour and employment lawyer I find this rather interesting. Frankly I don’t think she’s got much of a case here. Essentially the only thing she potentially has here is trying to prove that she was discriminated against as a woman, though I think she’ll be hard pressed to prove that. While it may be the case that some other male actors have “gotten away” with controversial social media posts, Disney can simply point to the actual amount of controversy her posts caused and the backlash. The more inflammatory the remarks, and the more people were hounding for her blood, the more Disney can just say that her comments were causing reputational harm to the organization, justifying the decision to terminate her, and nothing to do with gender discrimination.

On a side note I find it pretty obnoxious for Musk to offer to fund litigation on behalf of people terminated for shit posting on Twitter/X. It’s not a free speech issue. If an employee starts posting shit on social media that’s going to bring negative publicity to their employer’s business then the employer should be allowed to terminate them without fear of having to defend against a potentially meritless wrongful dismissal claim funded by Musk.

Good to hear from someone who has actual knowledge/experience in this.

I don't see how this is a gender discrimination thing, it's definitely a political one.

Saying Gina harmed their brand is hypocritical when you look at what other employees have said publically in interviews and on social media.

They just don't approve of Gina's political affiliations/ beliefs.

Is it harder to make a case for political discrimination? Like I mentioned in another post, if they want to, Disney can easily point to female employees saying divisive things and still keeping their jobs.

I don't see a gender discrimination case being made here.

 

[Osculater]

The Mandalorian vs The Republican'

The Mandalorian's are going to bring in Cyborg into battle

 

[JadeOwl]

Looks like nearly 10 out of the 59 pages are complaining about Pedro Pascal and Mark Hamill posting liberal stuff on social media, without getting fired for it.

If that is what she's basing her claim that she was treated differently because she's woman on, she'll get laughed out of court.

Leaving aside for a second the sheer delusion of thinking of herself as equivalent to them in terms of their relationship to their common employer, for her to prove that Disney is treating her differently because she is a woman, they would have to engage in the same behavior, and receive different treatment from the company for it, and contrary to what so many people in this threat have been yelling at the top of their lungs, posting far-right and far-left stuff in social media is not in and of itself equivalent!

A private company has every right to treat politically charged posting in social media differently according to its own leanings and its not obligated to treat both equally.

For her to have a case, Pascal and Hamil would have to have posted the same sort of things she did, and not gotten into trouble. Then she could argue that it was because she was a woman (If we ignored the fact that she was a C-lister guest-star and the other two were the star of the show and a living legend in entertainment respectively).

She was good because the limitations of the characrer fit her pretty well. The role didnt demand a lot of her. Be a thicc soldier girl with a big f*ckin gun, he disgruntled, kick some @ss. All things well within her wheelhouse.

She got so lucky in so many ways getting that part and she had so many people fighting for her too keep it, that it was actually pretty fucking awful of her to actively throw it away like she did.

 

[JadeOwl]

Is it harder to make a case for political discrimination?

If I understand correctly, it's not just harder, it's flat out impossible.

In the US "political affiliation" is not a protected class, and if you are an at-will employee you employer can fire you if they don't like your politics and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

That's why she's trying to square peg this thing into a round hole by claiming they treated her differently because she's a woman. Which is bullshit.

 

[shockaholic12]

I thought she was good in the show

I thought both she and the show were smart enough to not ask her to act and she just ran some lines and looked tough. Wouldn't really call it acting but she didn't fuck it up.

If I understand correctly, it's not just harder, it's flat out impossible.

In the US "political affiliation" is not a protected class, and if you are an at-will employee you employer can fire you if they don't like your politics and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

That's why she's trying to square peg this thing into a round hole by claiming they treated her differently because she's a woman. Which is bullshit.

On top of this the contract to sign on to a star wars project for disney probably has a dozen pages dedicated to all the ways they can fire you for anything related to public behavior.

 

[icemun]

Gina Carano sues Disney and Lucasfilm over firing in suit paid for by Elon Musk

The actor, who was fired from The Mandalorian after ‘abhorrent’ social media posts, is filing a lawsuit funded by the X owner

www.theguardian.com

Well this is a waste of the legal system. Seems like she doesn't understand how at will employment works.

Kind of ironic Elon Musk is supporting this given how many people he fired when he bought Twitter.

Contrary to most of you, women haters, I think Gina still looks hot (atleast in Mando) and I enjoyed her performance in it

That said-

She's sadly a dummy. Plus I thought she was going to make big new VHS movies with Ben Shapiro?