It’s been said that Hollywood is like high school with money, although lately, it seems to come across more like kindergarden.
When Megan Fox was canned from The Transformers series, it was a given that Michael Bay probably threw a tantrum and demanded it, because the actress compared him to Hitler. Now Bay claims it was Steven Spielberg that had her fired from the series.
Yes, directors are often known to be dictatorial, and it’s definitely extreme and in bad taste to compare somebody to Hitler, but Bay’s reputation for arrogance, screaming, and bullying behavior has certainly not endeared him to many in Hollywood.
You may recall several years ago the director and Bruce Willis similarly sparred online, and when Willis thinks you’re an a-hole, maybe it’s time to work on your people skills.
When Fox got fired, you may also recall certain “loyal Bay crew members” talked trash about her online, but considering his reputation with crews, it made you wonder who was really posting those rants.
It’s possible that Bay may have engaged in the time-honored tradition of throwing the first available person under the bus for one of his mistakes, and he made the fatal mistake of doing this with Spielberg. (This is another Bay trademark, permanent foot in mouth disease.)
Although Spielberg’s public image is certainly much cleaner, and by many accounts he is a nice man, it’s clear he does not like to be crossed. He once took offense to a joke in Kathy Griffin’s routine, and threatened to put her on his “sh*t list” if she didn’t apologize (she didn’t).
Whether he fired her or not, it’s doubtful Spielberg would be amused at having his reputation sullied like this, and one can only imagine Bay being called into Spielberg’s office and being read the riot act by somebody powerful enough to put him in his place.
Seriously, who wouldn’t want to be a fly on the wall for that? And many who have been bullied, reduced to tears, or fired by Bay must also be smiling at the prospect of this as well.
