Sydney Sweeney has furiously hit back at a 'shameful' Hollywood producer who slated her acting abilities and branded her 'not pretty.'
Carol Baum held nothing back as she took aim at the 26-year-old actress while speaking to New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in front of a live audience, with DailyMail.com exclusively revealing that she had accused Sydney of not being able to act while branding her film Anyone But You 'unwatchable.'
The American star was defended by fans who were quick to accuse Baum of jealousy and said she was an example of 'internal misogyny.'
Now, Sweeney has broken her silence, lambasting Baum for attacking another woman in the industry.
Sydney Sweeney, 26, has broken her silence, lambasting Hollywood producer Carol Baum for 'attacking' another woman in the industry after she took aim at her looks and acting abilities
Baumheld nothing back as she took aim at the 26-year-old actress in front of a live audience, accusing her of not being able to act and branding her film Anyone But You 'unwatchable'
'How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,' a representative for Sweeney told DailyMail.com.
'If that's what she's learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that's shameful.
'To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum's character.'
Baum was speaking with Maslin before an audience of fans when she made the comments following a screening of her 1988 film Dead Ringers starring Jeremy Irons.
'She's not pretty, she can't act,' said Baum, whose films include Father of the Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
'There's an actress who everybody loves now – Sydney Sweeney. I don't get Sydney Sweeney.'
Addressing her romcom Anything But You, in which she stars alongside Glen Powell, Baum continued: 'I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney's movie because I wanted to watch it.
'I wanted to know who she is and why everybody's talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie – sorry to people who love this movie – [this] romantic comedy where they hate each other.'
Sweeney, who starred alongside Glen Powell in Anyone But You (pictured), branded Baum 'shameful'
‘How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,’ a representative for Sweeney told DailyMail.com
The rep continued:'To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms Baum's character'
Referencing the producing class she teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Baum added: 'I said to my class, 'Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?''
'Nobody had an answer but then the question was asked, 'Well if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?'
'I said, 'Well that's a really good question...that's a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.'
Baum has produced 34 films starring the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Michael Douglas and Dolly Parton and last year published a book entitled Creative Producing.
Fans leapt to Sweeney's defense in the wake of Baum's incendiary comments, with one posting on X: 'Some lady said Sydney Sweeney 'wasn't pretty' and if she wants to fight me I'll meet her anywhere she wants.'
Another added: 'God give me the confidence of top Hollywood producer Carol Baum who said this of Sydney Sweeney '[she's] not pretty and she can't act'. Judge for yourself.'
'Just accept Sydney is all that,' wrote a third. 'And you are bitter [and] probably irrelevant.'
Sweeney as Cassie in provocative HBO series Euphoria, which won her an Emmy nomination
Sweeney's fans leapt to her defense in the wake of Baum's comments, with some accusing her of 'jealousy'
Sweeney, who rose to fame in HBO's Euphoria, has become one of Hollywood's hottest prospects, starring in three films in the past six months: Anyone But You, Madame Web and Immaculate.
An article by DailyMail.com last week described how the all-American blue-eyed blonde has become a cultural phenomenon, her unashamed sexuality embraced by America's conservative Right as proof that woke culture is dying, if not already dead.
Hailed by Republicans as the poster girl of a long overdue cultural shift away from political correctness, an incredulous headline in one of Canada's biggest newspapers, the National Post, asked: 'Are Sydney Sweeney's breasts double-D harbingers of the death of woke?'
Sweeney produces her own films and is tipped to star in Marvel blockbuster Spider-Woman as well as being poised to remake Jane Fonda's brazenly libidinous 1968 sci-fi action movie Barbarella.
