Truth, Lies & Hollywood: Comments on a Podcast

Originally published June 2, 2022

I missed this pod by Brad Stone (with Lucas Shaw and Kim Masters about the history of Amazon Video/Studios. Some is true. Some isn’t. My POV as the founder of both.

I was at Amazon for 13 years and founded Amazon Video and Amazon Studios. I was the first employee on each, devised the plans, hired and grew the teams, etc. I developed 16 patented technologies and did a lot of building as a product manager in Seattle.

I pushed to get into original content. We started Amazon Studios. I went to that and ran all global content for Prime Video. So my job was the same as Ted Sarandos’s job at Netflix before he became co-CEO.

Kim Masters claim 1 (anon source): there was a “Bro environment” at Amazon Studios and people were “dubiously qualified.” These are defamatory claims.

Re “bro environment” —

• 50% of the team was female. 

• We led the industry in % of female showrunners. 

• We insisted that 50% of comedy directors be female vs industry average of 17%.

We had the most feminist shows of any network. 

• Transparent. 

• I Love Dick. 

• Good Girls Revolt. 

• Maisel. 

• Z the Beginning of Everything. 

• One Mississippi. 

• Fleabag. 

• Et al.

Our top paid producer was female. And our #1 prodco partner’s motto was literally “topple the patriarchy”! 

How “bro” could it possibly have been?

Kim Masters has never quoted any actual Amazon employee saying anything negative about Amazon Studios. Several women from Amazon have called me to say I got screwed. 

To say it was “bro” shows at least a reckless disregard for the truth.

Re “dubiously qualified” — 

• We won the Comedy Best Series Globe 4 years out of 6

• Best comedy director Emmy 4 years out of 5 

• Emmy for Best Comedy 2018 and 2019 (Maisel and Fleabag)…

Plus The Boys, Bosch and Jack Ryan, several Best Series Annie’s and Emmys for animated series; the first Globe or Emmy for Best Series for a Streamer; and the first Best Picture Globe or Oscar nom for a streamer — all in 3.5 years of development starting from zero.

Maybe some “dubiously qualified” people are needed now?

The narrative on our shows is inaccurate. True, our shows got bigger as budgets and audiences got bigger (makes sense). But the narrative is that I ordered niche and artsy shows and my successor came in and ordered popular shows like The Boys and Jack Ryan. The Boys was greenlit a few weeks after I left and long before my successor arrived. I discussed with Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg. Jack Ryan was ordered to series in Summer 2016. Carnival Row went into preproduction September 2017 (before I left). I left October 2017. These are all publicly available facts.  To get it wrong you have to recklessly disregard available facts. https://t.co/0J7GbpBcuz

For that matter, Lord of the Rings deal was half done when I left (though I take no credit for the show at all). 

Comic con 2015 and “sexual harassment allegations” 

There was a screening in San Diego. After, there was a large dinner and an after party. I had never met Isa Dick Hackett.Kim Masters says on the pod that there was aggressive chat at the dinner. This is completely new and false fanfic created seven years later. IDH came up to me very briefly at dinner and we talked about her father’s work habits. Unremarkable chat. I get an Uber to go to an afterparty. Isa Dick Hackett hops in as does another Amazon exec. 10 block Uber ride at 1 AM. Note: if dinner chat was aggro why is she hopping in my car?

My joking in the Uber was not a proposition and not sex oriented. There was party banter and a joke about dating. Pretty middle of the bell curve/flow of traffic for peers at parties.

We got out of the car, took a smiling selfie. Went into party separately. At the party she came over and asked encouragingly if we were gay. Joked about that. Never saw her again. Note that she always comes to me, never me to her.

If her takeaway from Uber is that I am gay, seriously what are we even talking about here? 

She complained. Amazon investigated w a specialist firm. Everyone testified. This is the only time anyone had all the evidence and a zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment. Verdict: I was kept on.

For context, she also sued Google over calling a phone the “Nexus” and has been in litigation w her stepmom and Media Rights Capital. I have never been in litigation about anything or had any complaints about anything leveled against me.

There are two sides to every story but both sides of this one have actually been heard already, including the testimony of witnesses — and the finding was for me.

There was no mention at the time of the lewd remarks later claimed. If I had said “you’ll love my duck,” as asserted in the October 2017 piece in THR, Amazon would have fired me in 2015. KM later said that line didn’t come from IDH. How curious.

We did have a show in development called I Love Dick and there was some sniggering around that time about the title. Possible confusion? Idk.

We kept ordering Isa’s show, ordered another show from her. Then she offered us a multi-year overall deal with her company… Strange choice if we had such an awful “bro culture.”

Kim Masters came to Amazon in 2017 (2 yrs later) to write a story, seeking comment. Her first draft showed that she approached the article in bad faith —

Kim claim 1: Amazon had never produced a show that was a “cultural moment.” 

Transparent? Globe best series? AFI top 10? Made trans issues much bigger?

Kim claim 2: none of our shows “would pass the Bechdel test.” 

Clearly had a generic article written about someone else. What we were known for was shows created by women that won awards.

Kim claim 3: we lacked shows run by women. 

We had arguably the highest-rate of female creator-showrunners of any studio in Hollywood.

My point in citing these is that Kim Masters came to the story with explicit bias, no regard for the truth, and self-evident malice. 

This was only going to work out for her if she conjured a villain. And she had decided that had to be me.

Story was rejected by THR, NYT and others. A very cut down version was published in the Information in August 2017 as an unfortunate faux pas.

But after Harvey W. blew up, there was an opportune moment. And the story suddenly changed. An all new, sizzling version was published in THR. It became untenable to either dispute it or to stay. 

That was the tenor of that time.

In the article, Kim Masters and Isa Dick Hackett shared their enthusiasm for diverse network heads. But which came first — the agenda or the story punch up?

I didn’t sue in 2017 but Kim Masters has now reset the clock so now I can again. False: the basic quote. “Bro”. Dinner story. Narrative about shows. Witnesses abound.

The tenor of this time is — get everyone on the stand subject to investigation and cross.

I have no sympathy toward the bad behaviors metoo has shined a light on and I oppose any structures, conventions or systems that tend to cover up bad behaviors or wink at them and obvs want no association w it.

I am not like, say, Al Franken — overpunished. I am not guilty at all. It would be satisfying to let the sensibilities of the people — a jury of our peers — decide the truth.

Btw if in the course of a thirty year career, one person didn’t like one joke at one party and when investigated it was found not to be “sexual harassment,” should you forever be tagged with the phrase “sexual harassment” and “allegations”?

Apparently the press thinks that’s a fun thing to do. I’d say it’s doubly inaccurate.

Why the break with Amazon then? I don’t speak for them. But in general if you are an employee of a large company and the press gets on your case, you will always go — right or wrong. As an employee, you are always the lizard’s tail.

My accurate bio can be found here:

https://t.co/rRnHiKDJLt