Today’s blind item comes from an entertainment journalist! Collider reporter Stephen Weintraub was one of many, many reporters to attend this weekend’s press junket for Avengers: Infinity War. To be clear: Marvel junkets are general a model of professionalism. Occasionally, on past media tours, various cast members get a bit punch-drunk and start calling Black Widow a “slut” but generally speaking, the Marvel-organized junkets and press tours are well-oiled machines. For Avengers: Infinity War, I’ve been wondering though… it seems like there really has been a lack of advanced press. Part of that is because Marvel knows they have a huge monster film which will make billions of dollars regardless of any junket. Part of that might also be because some of the cast members are douchebags who don’t belong around people.
So this is what Weintraub tweeted… and then deleted hours later:
Just experienced the worst interview i’ve ever been part of in 12 years of reporting in Hollywood. I sat down & one of the actors then proceeded to be a complete f–king a–hole to me for 4 min and treated me like sh-t on the ground. Will never forget what happened.
The interview went so bad the studio apologized to me and also pulled the cards to make sure no one could ever see the video of what happened. If you saw the way he treated me you would lose all respect for the person. Completely unprofessional. Publicist should have stopped it.
a lot of people are asking me to name who was an a–hole today but it’s not going to happen. I’ve said everything I’m going to say about it. The tweet before this about a story tomorrow is just a normal @collider story
[From Weintraub’s deleted tweets]
This reminds me of the time a reporter went on Twitter to call out Tom Hardy for being a massive douchebag during the junket for The Revenant. That time, there was no mistake about it: the journalist called out Hardy by name and detailed all the ways in which he was a giant a–hole. My guess is that Marvel’s studio press team spoke to Weintraub after he tweeted this – and I CANNOT BELIEVE they took his “cards” (his tapes). So Weintraub deleted the tweets and tweeted this:
Yesterday I experienced something that’s never happened to me while working in Hollywood. I subsequently tweeted a few things while very upset that I should’ve kept to myself. While I’m still upset about the experience, I regret airing dirty laundry and have removed the tweets.
— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) April 22, 2018
So, who was it? Weintraub did say (before the tweet-and-deletes) that the a–hole was NOT Josh Brolin. Jeremy Renner also isn’t junket-ing for this movie, because Hawkeye apparently isn’t even in it. Chris Evans is currently on Broadway, so he’s not sitting in a hotel room in the middle of a junket. Other outlets say that the cast members who were on this junket were: Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Bautista, Don Cheadle and Chris Pratt. Was Robert Downey Jr. there? Because I think he would be a good contender if he was there. I’m thinking it probably was NOT Ruffalo… or Cumberbatch… or Hiddleston. Not because they’re my faves or anything, but because they have good reputations for how they treat the press. I don’t know…. Maybe Sebastian Stan? Anthony Mackie? Chris Pratt? Those are my three guesses.
editing and writing. Expect some of this on @collider tomorrow….#avengersinfintywar #Marvel pic.twitter.com/b8LbjA2WRr
— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) April 23, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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