Disney holds ‘crisis talks' after Jared Leto sexual misconduct report threatens to derail release of movie Tron: Ares
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
DISNEY has found itself scrambling to organize the promotion of Jared Leto's new movie amid historic claims of sexual impropriety, an insider has exclusively told The U.S. Sun.
Leto, 53, has been accused by nine women, including some who were teenagers at the time.
Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter
Sign up
4
Jared Leto speaks on stage about Disney's Tron: Ares during CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas on April 3, 2025
Credit: AFP
4
The Oscar-winning actor is the lead in the movie, scheduled for an October release, and is also one of the producers
Credit: YouTube/ONE Media
Model Laura La Rue was among the accusers who said she was just 16 when the star, then 36, began flirting through messages and once emerged from a room at his house naked, according to a damming Air Mail report in early June.
Recalling the alleged experience at his house, she said, "I thought maybe this was just what adult men do."
Leto's reps denied any wrongdoing, saying, "Their communications contain nothing sexual or inappropriate and Ms La Rue later applied to work as his personal assistant."
La Rue denied she ever applied for the job, according to AirMail.
He is not being sued or charged with any crime, but the report has thrown a wrench in the works when it comes to promoting his latest films.
The Oscar-winning actor has two big-budget films being released in the coming months at Disney and Amazon MGM, Tron: Ares and Masters of the Universe.
Ahead of Tron's release in October, Disney is scheduled to host a panel at San Diego ComicCon at the end of July, The Wrap reported, although it's not known whether or not Leto will appear on it.
"Jared wants it to be business as usual ahead of the release of his new movie, but Disney is nervous about the promotion of Tron," an insider exclusively told The U.S. Sun.
"The accusations of sexual misconduct couldn't have come at a worse time.
"The marketing team has been having crisis meetings ahead of its theatrical release in October.
Jared Leto shows off bold change to his appearance at MTV VMAs - as fans think he looks just like Kanye West's ex
"Disney is planning to host a panel at San Diego ComicCon to push Tron: Ares and Jared has made it known that he's happy to be on it.
"He doesn't want to hide away having denied the allegations and not only is he the lead, he's one of the producers.
"Talks are still ongoing about how to handle the situation, but he will likely take part in some capacity and hold his head high.
"He is not being sued civilly and he isn't being charged with a crime, if he were I think things would be a lot different."
Disney may still have to cut its losses on this one."
An insider told The U.S. Sun
Leto took to the stage to speak about Tron: Ares during CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas on April 3, 2025, just two months before the report was published by AirMail.
One woman speaking to the outlet claimed his behavior "has been an open secret for a long time."
The U.S. Sun's source added, "Disney may still have to cut its losses on this one but will still do what it can to promote the movie and create a buzz."
Neither Disney nor a representative for Leto responded to a request for comment.
San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 24 to 27. Tron is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 10.
The movie also Jodie Turner-Smith, Greta Lee, Cameron Monaghan, and Jeff Bridges.
And although a big-budget movie usually comes with TV and print interview slots for its lead star and a social media push, there has been no marketing since the initial trailer was released in April.
Leto is also set to appear in Masters of the Universe, which is scheduled for release in June 2026, although he is not the lead character in the live-action feature film.
The actor has been cast as Skeletor, the primary antagonist to Nicholas Galitzine's He-Man, according to reports.
Leto is also the frontman of the rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars, which is on tour until the end of the summer.
He has played major roles in several movies, including The Joker in Suicide Squad, and won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Dallas Buyers Club.
4
Fans got to see the trailer for Tron: Ares, which was screened at The Walt Disney Studios presentation during CinemaCon in Las Vegas
Credit: Getty
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Guardian
9 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Sydney Chandler describes experience on the Alien: Earth TV series as ‘a joy'
The 29-year-old American actress plays Wendy, a humanoid robot with human consciousness, in Emmy-winning producer Noah Hawley's new series based on the acclaimed franchise. The Alien franchise began with Sir Ridley Scott's 1979 film starring Sigourney Weaver as warrant officer Ellen Ripley, who takes on an extra-terrestrial lifeform called the Xenomorph. The new eight-episode series sees Wendy and a group of tactical soldiers make a discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat. Chandler, who starred in Olivia Wilde's psychological thriller Don't Worry Darling and Danny Boyle's miniseries Pistol, about the Sex Pistols, said she was lucky to have such a supportive cast for her first lead role. 'I felt like every day I was showing up to an incredible acting class,' Chandler told the PA news agency. 'I'm new to this game, and so it was just a joy to be able to work with such a supportive and such a giving cast who were there to play.' Speaking of her character, she said: 'There's so many layers to her and she's just a juicy character to jump into. 'I did as much prep as you can for a character, there's no research you could do. 'I really found my character once I started working off everybody.' Alien: Earth is set in the year 2120, when the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this corporate era, cyborgs and synthetics, which are humanoid robots with artificial intelligence, exist alongside humans, but the world is changed when the founder of the Prodigy corporation unlocks a technological advance: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). Wendy, the first hybrid prototype, marks a new advance in the race for immortality and after Weyland-Yutani's spaceship collides into Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter new and terrifying life forms. The cast includes Deadwood actor Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, Black Mirror star Alex Lawther as Hermit, Mary And George's Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Guerrilla actor Babou Ceesay as Morrow and Bottom star Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins. Blenkin said the filming experience was made a lot easier due to Hawley's practical approach to special effects. 'We were lucky on this show because we're not doing much acting with tennis balls or anything like that that you do in a show where there's a lot of CGI,' the 29-year-old actor explained. 'Noah was really intent upon everything being practical. 'There's no acting required when Cameron, the vegan New Zealander, is wearing a Xenomorph suit and is leering over you and drooling, and it's animatronic and it's real. 'It was just a joy. We turn into kids on those sets.' Hawley, who is best known for creating the Fargo TV series, said the 'imperfections of reality are scarier than the sort of bloodlessness of computer-generated images'. 'All I'm trying to do is create the same feelings that you had when you watched Ridley's film or James Cameron's film,' the 57-year-old writer and director explained. 'Some of that we're able to achieve in new ways, but some of it is literally going back to the original cinema of optical illusions.' Alien: Earth will launch on Disney+ on August 13.
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sexually-charged reason Disney princess REFUSED to take picture with theme park guest
Former Disney princess Katrina detailed the time she refused to take a picture She revealed the man was covered in 'inappropriate' tattoos
Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Princess Andre TV show start date: when does The Princess Diaries air?
Princess Andre, the daughter of Peter Andre and Katie Price, is stepping into the limelight herself with her own show and it is due to start airing on ITVX very soon Princess Andre was born into the world of celebrity as the daughter of showbiz legends Katie Price and Peter Andre. But now, she's stepping into the limelight in her own right with her own show The Princess Diaries. The starlet, who recently celebrated her 18th birthday, is set to open up about how her parents' estranged relationship has affected her through her childhood and teenage years amongst other things when the series goes to air. The first episode will air on Sunday 10 August at 9pm on ITV2, and viewers who are so captured by the new series will be able to watch the whole thing as a boxset on ITVX as well. And in the new series, the teenager has shared things haven't always been easy for her. In the first episode, Princess opened up about why she felt she could never speak to her dad, Peter, 52, about her mum following their bitter split and the fact they haven't spoken in years. Peter and Katie famously met when they competed on I'm A Me Out Of Here! in 2004. Within a year, they married and had Junior, 20, in June 2005. It comes after her mum Katie Price worried fans with appearance in family photo after explaining weight loss. Princess followed in 2007 but the couple eventually called it quits in 2009 after four years of marriage. These days, Peter is married to Emily Andre and has Theo, Amelia and Arabella with her whilst Katie has Jett and Bunny with Kieran Hayler, and was already mum to Harvey, 23, with Dwight Yorke by the time she met Peter. Princess has addressed traumatic memories of her glamour model mum Katie's divorce from Pete as well as her other very public relationships In a candid confession on the series, its title a reference to the 2001 Disney classic starring Anne Hathaway and the young adult novel of the same name, Princess said: "I did have a counsellor, I do still see her every now and then. "But I don't feel like I can really talk, so I just write everything down in my notes. I do wish, like, I could have had a more happier childhood. In the sense of like, I had so many things on my plate at a young age." Princess said she wishes she "wasn't like that" and that she had things lingering at the back of her mind while being very young. She did acknowledge "good times" in her childhood and discussed Katie's split from Kieran Hayler when she was 10 years old. Katie and Kieran were married for eight years but had a rocky relationship, with accusations of infidelity. They officially split in May 2018 but were married from 2013 to 2021, and Katie is now in a relationship with former Married At First Sight star JJ Slater. However, Princess admitted when speaking of her mum's previous breakup: "My mum, obviously being heartbroken, didn't deal with that in the best way, she went through a very, very dark time, which is understandable," Princess shared. Revealing how the tough time also had an impact on her, she added: "Which is hard for me because I was around adulty things that kids should never see and I think as well, when we needed our mum there, she wasn't emotionally able to be there because she had so much of her own problems going on." She heartbreakingly shared how she would return from school early to "get into bed and cry". Princess said she is close to her dad Pete, but would never speak to him about her pain. The model confessed she has "always grown up knowing my mum and dad don't like each other." Princess added: "I wouldn't say I'm fully, fully recovered from it but mum is such a different person and if you put her now to back then, she's genuinely really fixed herself."
