Lauren Duca (Linked In)
Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Lauren Duca, Teen Vogue’s celebrated columnist, caused a firestorm on Twitter yesterday after saying Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot was paid 46 times less than Man of Steel star Henry Cavill. The only problem is that Duca is dead wrong.
The Daily Caller is reporting on the embarrassing faux pas by Ms. Duca whose June 20 tweet read: “Gal Gadot made $300,000 for Wonder Woman as compared to Henry Cavill’s $14M for Man of Steel. The most compelling DC villain is the pay gap.”
Whether or not she was trying to incite another round of the phony “War on Women” outrage among the nation’s pink hat brigade remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure – Duca hasn’t a clue about how salaries work in Hollywood.
As the Daily Caller reports, the $300,000 that Gadot made is a base salary which is exactly the same as what Chris Evans was paid for the first Captain America film. She also stands to make millions in bonuses much like Evans and other superhero actors and actresses. This is just how Hollywood contracts work.
A source quoted in Vanity Fair confirmed that it was “insane” to say that Cavill was paid $14 million for his film. His huge payday included sizable bonuses and was likely part of a multi-film deal. The Wonder Woman franchise, whose blockbuster first film is already over the $500 million mark, stands to pay Gadot an equally hefty amount.
In fact, the $300,000 she was paid is pretty much standard for superhero franchises that are just getting started. Robert Downey Jr. (Avengers), Chris Evans (Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor) were all paid less than $500,000 for their first solo superhero movies but eventually brought in much bigger paychecks.
“Entry-level actors in franchise films are paid an initial rate. As a franchise takes off, they stand to make more money,” a source told Vanity Fair. “If you do an apples to apples comparison, she [Gal Gadot] was paid at least as much as he [Cavill] was.”
Even though Vanity Fair published it’s explanation of the exaggerated “facts” about the Wonder Woman pay gap, the false narrative was pushed by Elle Magazine and then picked up by Duca whose tweet received over 10,000 retweets and 20,000 likes.
It remains to be seen if Duca will do the right thing and publish a correction.
If not, she’s perpetuating the same kind of disingenuous rhetoric that does nothing more than uselessly inflame the female population. Women have enough real problems to deal with on a daily basis without being unnecessarily provoked by ideologues who promote misinformation for no other reason than to add numbers to their pink-hat marches.
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