The summer movie season is a pandemic-afflicted bust. But Hollywood is overcompensating with a real-life blockbuster: Starring a savvy young actress who takes …
The summer movie season is a pandemic-afflicted bust. But Hollywood is overcompensating with a real-life blockbuster: Starring a savvy young actress who takes down two powerful studio heads, it reads like a reboot of “Basic Instinct” meets “Fatal Attraction.” Despite a lackluster career,28-year-old Charlotte Kirk snagged marquee headlines this week after toppling the four-decade career of Ron Meyer — formerly one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood (having worked with stars like Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Cher) and, since 2013, the vice chairman of NBCUniversal. Meyer,75, admitted to settling a lawsuit with Kirk, whom he characterized as a woman with whom he had a “brief consensual affair” in 2012, while still married to his second wife, Kelly. The Los Angeles Times reported that Meyer paid Kirk at least $500,000 as part of a promised $2 million settlement in 2019. In a statement this week, Meyer claimed that third parties “continuously attempted to extort me into paying them money” by threatening to publish false claims about Meyer or falsely implicate NBCUniversal in the ordeal, and that Kirk (whom he did not name) had “made false accusations against” him. Kirk’s lawyer, who had no comment for The Post, told Variety that he’s “never done a settlement with Ron Meyer on anything.” Meanwhile, last year, Kevin Tsujihara,55, stepped down as the CEO of Warner Brothers Entertainment after it was revealed that he tried to get film auditions for Kirk, with whom he, too, had an extramarital affair. Text messages — between Kirk, Tsujihara and others — leaked to The Hollywood Reporter in 2019 seem to suggest that Kirk’s sexual favors may have also helped grease a $450 million deal between Warner Bros. and RatPac-Dune Entertainment, a production company owned by two of her early benefactors: director Brett Ratner and billionaire James Packer, whom Kirk reportedly also dated. (Representatives for Meyer, Tsujihara and Packer did not return calls for comment. Ratner had no comment.) Some of these power players have accused Kirk of “blackmail” and “extortion” in her desperate climb up the Tinseltown ladder. “She is cunning and knows what she wants,” producer Jana Grazer, the sister-in-law of super-producer Brian Grazer, told The Post of Kirk. She recalled seeing Kirk in acting classes. “My husband [director Gavin Grazer] would come in to watch the actors on the showcase nights. [Charlotte] was super-aggressive and she attempted to hit on my husband a few times. He’s a director and related to Brian. .. I know her type. “Her networking style is pushy and aggressive. She wore short, tight dresses. But I thought she was really talented.
