Lauren Sanchez and Sydney Sweeney take the high road against ‘vicious’ critics
It’s not known if Lauren Sanchez and Sydney Sweeney ever crossed paths in Hollywood, but the two famous women could have gotten together for coffee or a spa day to share tips on how to silence critics who grabbed social media attention this week by hurling insults at them or by denigrating their looks and professional capabilities.
Each woman, in her own way, clapped back at the high-profile critics who made headlines this week. Sanchez did so by going on Instagram Story to post a not-so-cryptc comment about leading “with kindness,” which appeared to brush off insults directed at her by the famously provocative New York City restaurateur Keith McNally, Page Six reported.
Seemingly out of the blue, McNally, the owner of celebrity hotspot Balthasar, opined on Instagram Monday that the former L.A. TV news personality was “absolutely revolting” and said that she and her fiancé, multibillionaire Amazon fonder Jeff Bezos, make “an ugly and (expletive) smug-looking couple.”
Sanchez also seemed to respond to McNally with another post that shared an image with the message, “People will love you. People will hate you. And none of it will have anything do with you.”
Meanwhile, Sweeney had her publicist issue a statement, decrying the way that a female industry professional chose “to attack another woman,” Page Six reported.
Sweeney, the star of the recent hit rom-com, “Anything But You,” was the topic of conversation at a classic-film screening outside New York last week. Veteran film producer Carol Baum was the guest of honor and went off on Sweeney during an on-stage interview with New York Times film critic Janet Maslin. News of Baum’s comments were reported this week in the Daily Mail and other outlets.
“There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney,” Baum said about the 26-year-old, up-and-coming star. “I don’t get Sydney Sweeney.”
Baum said she watched “Anything But You” on the plane flying to New York because she wanted to understand “why everybody’s talking about her.” The producer — whose credits include “Father of the Bride,” “Shining Through” and “Dead Ringers,” the 1988 film presented at the screening — called “Anything But You” “unwatchable.”
Baum said she brought up the Sweeney phenomenon with a class she teaches at the University of Southern California: “I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’” Baum said: “Nobody had an answer.”
In response to Baum’s comments, the “Euphoria” star’s representative said, “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman,” Page Six reported. “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.”
Fans of Sweeney and Sanchez also came to their defense this week.
“Carol Baum is jealous of Sydney Sweeney’s appearance and popularity, two things Baum never possessed,” one person posted on X, Page Six reported. Another person said that Sweeney had received two Emmy nominations for “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” and has headlined movies and produced at age 26. This person also said, “Carol Baum, with nothing relevant on her resume in 30 years, should sit this one out.”
With regard to Sanchez, she received support from other famous women, including Chrissy Teigen, Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, and MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle. Jessica Seinfeld said that the post by McNally “is a reflection of (his) twisted, pitiful, and hideous mind.
Ruhle said: “Social media is fun, but this is not. It is just mean for no reason. If we all took a breath and thought about what it feels like to be mocked and teased, we’d do a lot less of it.”