Posted on 10/22/2023 4:05:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The agent, who reps multiple A-list stars, apologized and deleted remarks after the Oct. 7 attack following criticism.
After apologizing for remarks made following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, CAA’s co-chief of the motion pictures department Maha Dakhil is stepping away from her leadership role in the division. Additionally she’s resigning from the Century City-based firm’s internal agency board.
Dakhil, whose clients include Tom Cruise, Natalie Portman, Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway and more, came under scrutiny for an Instagram post that had been highly critical of Israel and referenced “genocide.” That post was later deleted and the agent apologized for the remarks.
“I made a mistake with a repost in my Instagram story, which used hurtful language,” Dakhil stated in an Instagram post on Oct. 19. “Like so many of us, I have been reeling with heartbreak. I pride myself on being on the side of humanity and peace. I’m so grateful to Jewish friends and colleagues who pointed out the implications and further educated me. I immediately took the repost down. I’m sorry for the pain I have caused.”
As word of the post reverberated across town, attention turned to what action, if any, that the Bryan Lourd-run major agency — which was subject to multiple headlines about the comments — would take in response. While Dakhil is exiting as co-chief of the motion pictures department, she will continue to work with clients.
The shake-up reflects the fraught social media environment in the weeks since Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,400 Israelis, and the country’s airstrike response in Gaza.
While major studios — including Disney, Paramount and Comcast — issued donations to humanitarian organizations after the attack and executives like Bob Iger and Shari Redstone condemned Hamas’ actions, there’s been a groundswell of activist attention in parts of Hollywood that have been highly critical of Israel’s response.
A petition circulated with 700-plus entertainment industry names signing an open letter in support of Israel, which included signatures the top execs at CAA including Lourd and co-chairman Richard Lovett and Kevin Huvane. “The open letter calls on the entertainment community to speak out forcefully against Hamas, to support Israel, to refrain from sharing misinformation about the war, and do whatever is in their power to urge the terrorist organization to return the innocent hostages to their families,” that note read.
Shortly after, an A-list group of at least 57 stars put their name to a letter addressed to President Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. “We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians,” that letter read.
the text of her tweet was not included in this “story” nor was a screenshot of it. Journalism is dead in the USA.
Good! I can only imagine if she had posted the genocide was on the Jewish folks - CAA would have booted her out immediately. Amazing coming from an industry with so many Jews. I just don’t understand their keeping quiet.
She is the daughter of immigrants from Libya,
None of these knee-jerk leftists seem to know that the Gazans have been sneaking into Israel and murdering families for many many years. Hence the need for a fence.
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But, but, she did apologize.
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