This whole Megan Fox and Transformers thing just refuses to die, but I have to give her credit: it keeps popping up in the news cycle without her actually saying anything. Sure, she initially sparked a firestorm when she (good-naturedly, so far as that goes) compared Michael Bay to a miniature Hitler on set, but she's been relatively level-headed about getting fired thus far, not even speaking about it very much publicly. Can you imagine if this had happened to Lindsay Lohan? She'd be yelling at bouncers about it every night, her mom would take out a billboard across the street from the Paramount lot, she'd OD and blame it on Shia LaBeouf, etc.
LaBeouf, of course, sparked another round of discussion last week about Fox by claiming that her feminism caused problems with Bay, but the final word on the matter might be coming from Bay himself, who told GQ on no uncertain terms:
She was in a different world, on her BlackBerry. You gotta stay focused. And you know, the Hitler thing. Steven said, “Fire her right now.”
That's probably the wishy-washiest thing thing one could possibly say about the situation. God forbid an actress actually use a cell phone while they're waiting three hours for the lighting to get done on a movie set before they scream for 15 seconds and their day is over. And while Spielberg might very well have reacted strongly to Fox's Godwin-Lawing of the situation, Bay has been the one who's manned up and taken the blame for the firing for a year now; why shift it over to Spielberg now? Obviously Spielberg has strong opinions about Hitler, but painting him out to be a humorless martinet doesn't do him any favors. If you'll recall, Fox's quote was pretty innocuous, especially looking back after a year of these stupid stories:
He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him.
That's hardly the kind of thing I'd fire someone for, but I guess it passes for breach of contract in Hollywood these days. Or, more likely, it was the straw that broke the camel's back in a longer history of strained relations between Fox and Bay. Either way, it's opened the door wide for Rosie Whatsherface; may the road rise up to meet her on her no-doubt long and successful career as a human Barbie Doll.
