Maybe The Transsexual Hooker Party Was Invitation Only
by Ryan Porter
Staff from Casey Affleck's Joaquin Phoenix documentary deny the set was the kind of offensive environment described in a sexual harassment suit.
As if
Casey Affleck's directorial debut isn't already getting the Hot Mess Seal of Approval by documenting
Joaquin Phoenix's quest to become the most unlikely hip-hop star since
Bindi Irwin. Now staff are squaring off over a sexual-harassment suit.
Producer Amanda White and cinematographer Magdalena Gorka sued Casey for sexual harassment last month, demanding $2 million and $2.25 million respectively. Amanda White's lawsuit claims Casey tried to intimidate her into having sex with him, convinced a crew member to flash her, and staged an impromptu shoot in Vegas filled with hookers and male-to-female transsexuals that conveniently never made it into the final cut. Basically your typical day at
Eddie Murphy's house.
Today two other female crew members came out in support of Casey. "I never saw anything out of the ordinary either on or off set, and certainly nothing like what they described in [these lawsuits]," Nicole Acacio, a documentary producer who isn't credited on the film's IMDB page, tells the
New York Post.
A female editor on the doc, which premieres next month, also supports Casey. "These lawsuits are contrary to everything that I personally know about Casey," she told the
Post. Casey agrees. He's countersuing.
Casey is married to Joaquin's sister Summer, but all you have to do is take a good hard look into Joaquin's beard to know something's not right here. The popular theory is that this doc is going to be a high-comedy satire on celeb culture. If that's true, maybe this sexual harassment suit is marketing. I don't know what's going on with it. All I know is it's been done. It's called
Pamela Anderson in
Borat, and they didn't have to commit career suicide to get it made.