Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines for June 3
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Quibi staffers are reportedly up in arms over Reese Witherspoon's recent raking in of $6 million for her narration of one of its shows while employees of the streaming service are facing layoffs, an allegation the company denied Wednesday.
The platform launched in April, with Witherspoon lending her voice to "Fierce Queens," a documentary series produced by BBC that showcases the remarkable abilities of female animals from around the world.
But insiders claimed to Page Six that the series hasn't performed well and Witherspoon's big payday is hard to swallow as employees' futures at the company are unknown.
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Reese Witherspoon attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 9, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Getty)
"Quibi may have to implement cutbacks and people are fuming that stars like Reese got paid millions," one source told the outlet.
The insider claimed that Quibi has already scaled back overtime for its "lowest-level staffers," while others have already been let go "quietly."
"The mood is dark," the source added.
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However, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News that Witherspoon's payday was "far, far, far less" than $6 million.
Meanwhile, Quibi said the report was "completely inaccurate" and "the talent compensation was utterly inaccurate," as well as denied laying off staff "as a part of cost-saving measures" in a company memo obtained by Fox News on Wednesday. The company said in the memo its senior leadership team has "volunteered to take a 10 percent pay cut because it’s the right thing to do."
Quibi was launched by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman with an aim at commuters, as it can only be accessed on a mobile device. All of the shows featured on the app are 10 minutes or less. The outlet said the streaming service has already dropped off of Apple's Top 200 apps list.
Katzenberg told The New York Times in May that the platform's disappointing launch was due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's not up to what we wanted," he said of the numbers last month. "It's not close to what we wanted."
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It was reported in March that Witherspoon's husband, Jim Toth, left his long-standing career as an agent at CAA to join Quibi as its head of content acquisitions and talent.
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