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Christmas came early this year! I can't believe he's finally been exposed! Not even the wage-fixing scandal managed to do that. While I doubt he'll be permanently ousted from the studios, at least the media will stop pretending now he's some sort of holy figure, constantly lavishing him with praise and Lasseter apologists can finally shut the f@ck up!

Its probably the wrong time to put positive spin on things, (I do apology if this not time or a place to do so) but maybe Disney will now return to hand draw animation.

But it must be said that allegations are one thing actual conviction is another. I would tend to think at some point there might be one allegation to many and the whole movement could fall apart or would need to backtrack.

If he's willing to talk about it, I can't even imagine what is really hiding underneath.

Sources additionally tell Cartoon Brew that there has allegedly been at least one financial settlement from the Walt Disney Company over Lasseter’s actions. This implies that the behavior went on with the knowledge of Disney and Pixar Animation Studios president Ed Catmull and Disney CEO Bob Iger.

According to a Disney artist at last night's TAG Local 839 union meeting, Disney has paid off the people who filed complaints about Lasseter and has made them sign nondisclosure agreements.

@josh gad: Men have had a good couple of thousands of years to try it their way. I think it’s time for women to take over. Actually past time.

and Lasseter apologists can finally shut the f@ck up!

Few in animation are willing to cross him. “He is a beloved figure, so I’m scared to speak out,” said one of numerous former employees who spoke to Variety over the last several weeks, all of whom refused to be identified by name for fear of career repercussions. Many described the culture at Pixar as toxic for women. “It’s sexist and misogynistic,” said a former employee.

Many former female Pixar employees said there was a classic whisper network at the animation company, where young women were advised to keep their distance from the co-founder. Another former employee told Variety that she was cautioned about Lasseter soon after she started work there, in the late 1990s. “Just be warned, he likes to hug the pretty girls,” she said she was told. “He might try to kiss you on the mouth.”

The employee said she was alarmed by how routine the whole thing seemed. “There was kind of a big cult around John,” she says.

Some told Variety that he would make inappropriate comments about women, or touch them on their legs or backs. Some described receiving hugs that went on a few seconds too long. “There is a currency there — the currency is touch, and being touched by this person who is always in charge,” said another former Pixar employee. “It’s personal and intimate and probably not appropriate.”

Another former employee said that after Pixar grew out of its Point Richmond office and moved to Emeryville in 2000, Lasseter’s behavior became more brazen. She said he would walk up to women in the office and kiss them on the lips. “I found it shocking,” she said. “That’s not a normal way of greeting a colleague.”

Another ex-employee said she was told that Lasseter had been spoken to about his behavior, and was assured that it had improved. Nevertheless, Lasseter’s comportment around women has continued to be an issue in recent years. “The consensus was that he was a hugger,” she said. “Male and female employees warned me that he could be touchy-feely. He could make comments that were uncomfortable or awkward or embarrassing for women. And it was all, ‘Oh ha ha, that’s just our John.'”

She said her manager kept her out of meetings where Lasseter would be present, telling her it would be best for her not to attend the intimate weekly reviews because “John has a hard time controlling himself around young pretty girls.” She said that being excluded from meetings with Lasseter meant that she was not able to pitch or articulate her ideas or discuss her work with the director. She also felt left out of important conversations that went on in the review room. The experience made her feel undervalued and stifled in her career at the company, and she said it contributed to her decision to leave. She said managers chose to thwart her career rather than “have difficult conversations with the most important, high-ranking and powerful man in the company.”

The former employee who witnessed co-workers being kissed on the mouth said she hoped Lasseter would seek treatment. “I don’t see taking a six-month vacation, which I’m sure he’ll be paid for, is really gonna be a solution,” she said. “I would hope he would individually apologize to people and get some help.”

In March 2010, days after another triumphant Oscar ceremony for Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios, the company’s chief creative officer, John Lasseter, was the subject of a tense phone call among Disney and Pixar executives, one person on the line recently told Vanity Fair. During the conversation, which included Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios president Ed Catmull, Walt Disney Animation Studios production chief Andrew Millstein, Disney corporate communications chief Zenia Mucha, and others, the group discussed Lasseter’s behavior at an Oscar party, where the executive allegedly French kissed and fondled a female Disney employee. [...]

One former male employee described traveling to a film festival with the executive and being asked to bring him to a strip club. “He’d get dances and point at me to pay for it,” the employee said. “I was supposed to entertain him. It was so uncomfortable. He liked to have a good time. He liked his wine.”

Female employees describe discomfort with Lasseter’s physical affection, which included close hugs, and kisses on the lips if a woman failed to turn her face in time. “After one of those hugs, we’d joke to each other, ‘Boxers or briefs?’” said one former Pixar employee. At a recording session, she described an encounter that led her to feel strange around her boss. “He leaned into my monitor and whispered into my ear, ‘You look so beautiful, that light in your eyes,’” the former Pixar employee said. “It was the way a lover would talk to you. I remember him touching my back or leg or knee and just feeling . . . ugh. And then we talked about the work.”

well no wonder they cancelled Gigantic! a giant young female figure lording over a tiny helpless man? Nope, cant have that now can we!

[Update 6 p.m.: Rashida Jones and Will McCormack have issued a statement to the New York Times clarifying that they “did not leave Pixar due to unwanted advances. That is untrue. We parted ways because of creative, and more importantly, philosophical differences.” The duo then go on to allege that Pixar is a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice,” pointing to the studio’s director demographics. Meanwhile, Vanity Fair reports that according to one current Pixar employee, “rumors have circulated within the studio over Inside Out and Up director Pete Docter taking the helm.” Our earlier story is below.