Amazon Studios CEO resigns amid sex harassment allegations
NEW YORK — Amazon Studios’ top executive, Roy Price, has resigned after sexual harassment allegations were made by a producer on the Amazon series “Man in the High Castle.”
Price was put on leave last week. An Amazon spokesman confirmed the resignation yesterday. Albert Cheng, who had been Amazon Studios’ COO, will be the interim chief.
The accusations against Price came in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that is roiling Hollywood. Producer Isa Hackett charged in an account published in The Hollywood Reporter that Price had repeatedly and crudely propositioned her after a 2015 event in San Diego.
A steady stream of women have gone public with accusations against Weinstein after initial reports by The New York Times and The New Yorker about other women’s harassment claims.
But it has spread beyond Weinstein, with women across the world saying they’d been harassed through the social media hashtag, “#metoo.”
Hackett said in a statement yesterday she was pleased that Amazon had taken steps to address the issue.
“An important conversation has begun about the need to create a culture in our industry which values respect and decency and rejects the abuse of power and dehumanizing treatment of others,” she said. “This is truly an opportunity to find a better way forward, and ultimately toward a balanced representation of women and minorities in leadership positions.”