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A former HBO employee accused the network's former president of original programming Casey Bloys of hiring a “secret army” to troll critics who post less-than-stellar reviews of their shows, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
HBO recently responded to these accusations stemming from a former employee's wrongful termination suit. The network did not dispute the claim that Bloys and another HBO executive ordered former executive assistant Sully Temori to troll high-profile critics and other commenters.
The statement said, “HBO intends to vigorously defend against Mr. Temori's allegations.”
“We are not going to comment on select exchanges between programmers and errants tweets,” it continued.
The story first appeared on Rolling Stone, referencing messages included in the lawsuit Temori filed against HBO and Warner Media. The lawsuit also includes HBO's senior vice president of drama programming, Kathleen McCaffrey, and head of drama, Francesca Orsi.
Temori used the alias John Doe to file the suit at the Los Angeles Superior Court in July. In the suit, he said he experienced harassment due to his disability and sexual orientation.
The complaint also includes claims of discrimination and retaliation. It was also filed against The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) and two The Idol executive producers. Temori accused them of bullying him in an effort to make him quit.
While the trolling task isn't mentioned in the suit, Temori accused HBO executives of giving him “menial tasks” that were unrelated to his job title. A THR source stated that six tweets were the root of this issue.
The Rolling Stone reported that McCaffrey told the former executive assistant to create fake X (formerly Twitter) accounts in June 2020. McCaffrey allegedly told him that Bloys “was obsessed with Twitter” and “always wanted to pick a fight” on the social media platform.
The Bloys and McCaffrey Text Files
McCaffrey wrote, “Is there a way to create a dummy account that can't be traced to us to do his bidding?”
She added that Bloys “always texts me asking me to find friends to reply.”
That same month, Bloys told McCaffrey to reply to Vulture TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk's tweet regarding the Matthew Rhys-led show Perry Mason.
VanArendonk subtweeted, “Dear prestige TV, please find some way to communicate male trauma besides showing me a flashback to the hero's memories of trench warfare.”
In response, Bloys reportedly texted, “Maybe a Twitter user should tweet that that's a pretty blithe response to what soldiers legitimately go through on [the] battlefield.”
“Do you have a secret handle? Couldn't we say especially that it's D-Day to dismiss a soldier's experience like that seems pretty disrespectful?” the text continued.
Bloys allegedy wanted a “mole” at “arms length” from top management was necessary to do this.
He insisted, “We just need a random to make the point and make her feel bad.”
A tweet replied to VanArendonk's comment said, “A somewhat elitist take. Is there anything more traumatic for me (and now women) than fighting a war. Sorry if that seems too convenient for you.”
In a THR interview, VanArendonk said, “There's a temptation to treat executives as though they are powerful and almost inhuman in the power and control they have, sort of like puppet masters, but again and again we should not be surprised to discover they're human.”
HBO's Covert Tweet Wars
Another alleged target of Bloys' covert Twitter (since this was in 2020 before the platform was renamed X) was Rolling Stone chief TV critic Alan Sepinwall. He gave Joss Whedon's sci-fi show The Nevers a 2.5 star review.
In McCaffrey's text to Temori, she wrote, “He's mad at Sepinwall. Can our secret operative please tweet at Alan's review: ‘Alan is always predictably safe and scared in his opinions.'”
New York Times chief TV critic James Poniewozik review the same show and tweeted that the show “feels like watching a show that someone has mysteriously deleted 25% of the scenes from.”
Bloys told McCaffrey to reply from a dummy account to say, “Maybe our friend needs to say what a shock it is that two [middle-aged] white men (he and [Times TV critic Mike] Hale) are sh*****g on a show about women.”
McCaffrey responded with, “I f*****g hate these people, yes.”
Bloys didn't limit his targets to just critics. He also turned his attention to Deadline commenters.
When HBO canceled Run, a commenter wrote, “Wasn't a good show and harshly unveils Bloys-era cynicism of HBO development. Try making a show that can actually inspire people — great TV doesn't have to be ugly.”
A reportedly irate Bloys wrote to McCaffrey and said, “How dare someone write that!! I want to say something along the lines of ‘lol ok they are just counting their Emmys' or something like that!?”
Temori's court documents are expect to be filed against HBO. Warner Media was dismissed from the case in September. Bloys, as often as his name appeared in the documents, isn't part of the complaint
