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Carol Baum, who graduated Columbia High School in Maplewood, disparaged the "Euphoria" star during a Q-n-A at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY, on Thursday, April, 11.
Baum, who has produced movies like "Father of the Bride" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," was on hand to discuss her experiences producing the 1988 David Cronenberg film "Dead Calm," which came out nine years before Sweeney was born.
"I don't get Sydney Sweeney," Baum reportedly said. "I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney's movie ["Anyone But You] 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."
Baum, an adjunct professor at University of Southern California said she asked her students to explain Sweeney's popularity.
"She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer," Baum said.
In a statement, Sweeney, who has won acclaim for her acting in "Reality" and "The White Lotus" harshly criticized Baum.
"How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman," Sweeney said. " 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.”
Janet Maslin, the former New York Times critic who was moderating the discussion with Baum, chimed in to say she thought "Anyone But You" was unwatchable.
"We brought up 'Anyone But You' because it’s been the rare smash hit rom-com at a time when they aren’t working," Maslin, the president of the Jacob Burns Film Center Board of Directors said on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Not because we wanted to take cheap shots at anyone."
Despite her critiques of Sweeney's hit film, Maslin agreed with a Twitter user who said she was pretty: "Absolutely," Maslin said.
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