By Chris Barton
Los Angeles Times
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) In the controversy sparked by reports that Mark Wahlberg earned roughly $1.5 million for reshoots on the set of “All the Money in the World” while co-star Michelle Williams was paid only $1,000, Wahlberg and the agency that represents him, William Morris Endeavor, announced Saturday that they would give $2 million to Time’s Up, a legal fund set up to fight inequality and harassment in Hollywood.
Los Angeles Times
“Over the last few days, my reshoot fee for “All the Money in the World” has become an important topic of conversation,” Wahlberg said in a statement. “I 100 percent support the fight for fair pay and I’m donating the $1.5 million to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in Michelle Williams’ name.”
The agency, which also represents Williams, said it would donate $500,000 to Time’s Up.
“The current conversation is a reminder that those of us in a position of influence have a responsibility to challenge inequities, including the gender wage gap,” the agency said in a statement.
“All the Money in the World” director Ridley Scott embarked on a whirlwind of hasty reshoots late last year when the news broke that the film’s original star, Kevin Spacey, faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
Scott recast Christopher Plummer in the place of Spacey, who portrayed billionaire industrialist J. Paul Getty in a story inspired by the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.
Wahlberg, who played a former CIA agent who helped the Gettys with the case, and Williams, who played Gail Harris, the mother of the kidnapped boy, reconvened for multiple days of reshoots.
Williams was said to have received only a per diem that totaled about $1,000 while Wahlberg and his agent negotiated an additional fee of $1.5 million.
Protest of the pay discrepancy was fanned by a climate of increased awareness of sexual harassment and gender inequality in Hollywood after an expose of sexual misconduct by movie producer Harvey Weinstein, which ran in the New Yorker in October 2017.
The increased scrutiny manifested at last weekend’s Golden Globes ceremony in the form of multiple actresses and actors showing solidarity by wearing all-black on the red carpet, along with pins that read “Time’s Up” in support of the fund started by Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Aniston and Shonda Rhimes.
In August, Forbes named Wahlberg the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, earning an estimated $68 million between June 2016 and June 2017 to top Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who earned about $65 million. The highest-paid woman on the list, Emma Stone, earned $26 million.
