{"id":336081,"date":"2017-11-22T05:47:38","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T04:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/pixar-disney-chief-takes-leave-of-absence-over-harassment-claims-rt-us-news\/"},"modified":"2017-11-22T05:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T04:47:38","slug":"pixar-disney-chief-takes-leave-of-absence-over-harassment-claims-rt-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/pixar-disney-chief-takes-leave-of-absence-over-harassment-claims-rt-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pixar &#038; Disney chief takes \u2018leave of absence\u2019 over harassment claims \u2014 RT US News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2017.11\/thumbnail\/5a14bcc2fc7e932e1b8b4568.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 22 Nov, 2017 02:14 <\/time><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Edited time: 22 Nov, 2017 02:24 <\/time><\/p>\n<p>        Walt Disney Animation and Pixar chief John Lasseter has reportedly taken a six-month leave of absence following reports of sexual misconduct towards employees at the company.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>In a memo announcing his temporary departure to company employees, Lasseter alluded to the allegations. The statement, which has been seen by Reuters, reads: <em>\u201c<\/em><em>I\u2019ve recently had a number of difficult conversations that have been very painful for me. It\u2019s never easy to face your missteps, but it\u2019s the only way to learn from them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAs a result, I\u2019ve been giving a lot of thought to the leader I am today compared to the mentor, advocate and champion I want to be. It\u2019s been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable. That was never my intent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The 60-year-old\u2019s statement comes at the same time an investigation by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/john-lasseter-taking-leave-absence-pixar-missteps-1057113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hollywood Reporter<\/a> claimed he dished out unwanted hugs and kisses to female employees and was known to grope women at the company over a number of years.<\/p>\n<p>The Hollywood Reporter also claimed he made <em>\u201cunwanted advances\u201d<\/em> toward actress and writer Rashida Jones, who had been working on the script for the fourth installment of the <em>\u2018Toy Story\u2019<\/em> franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Lasseter is the recipient of two Oscars for animation and is known for directing the animated films <em>\u2018Toy Story,\u2019 \u2018A Bug\u2019s Life\u2019<\/em> and<em> \u2018Cars.\u2019<\/em> He has also produced all of Pixar\u2019s movies since <em>\u2018Monster\u2019s Inc\u2019<\/em> in 2001. He has been the chief creative officer for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation since the latter\u2019s takeover of Pixar in 2006, overseeing Disney\u2019s recent box office successes such as <em>\u2018Frozen\u2019<\/em> and <em>\u2018Zootopia.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Lasseter\u2019s apparent downfall is just the latest in a string of sexual misconduct allegations in recent days. Longtime TV news host Charlie Rose was fired by CBS Tuesday, following allegations of sexual misconduct by eight different women in a Washington Post report Monday. Jeffrey Tambor, star of the Amazon show<em> \u2018Transparent,\u2019<\/em> also stepped down from the show over reports of inappropriate behaviour.Tambor denied the claims. Rose, meanwhile, said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlierose\/status\/932747035069034496\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement<\/a>, that he did not believe all the allegations against him are <em>\u201caccurate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"media__youtube-frame\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300px\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X6p271jRSvA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/410571-lasseter-pixar-disney-animation-leave\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 22 Nov, 2017 02:14 Edited time: 22 Nov, 2017 02:24 Walt Disney Animation and Pixar chief John Lasseter has reportedly taken a six-month leave of absence following reports of sexual misconduct towards employees at the company. In a memo announcing his temporary departure to company employees, Lasseter alluded to the allegations. The statement, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-336081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}