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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. TGIF!
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE Acting Mayor Kim Janey began the week by pledging to shine a light on old Boston Police Department records. But days later, she is under fire from her political opponents and the former police commissioner, for her handling of a scandal inside the department.
Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The New York Women s Foundation
Abigail Disney will testify at Sen. Elizabeth Warren s hearing next week on the US tax system.
This comes after billionaire Leon Cooperman rejected Warren s invite, calling it disingenuous.
Disney has advocated for a wealth tax and was among a group of 19 ultrawealthy Americans calling for its support.
After billionaire Leon Cooperman rejected Sen. Elizabeth Warren s invitation to testify on her proposed wealth tax, philanthropist Abigail Disney accepted the opportunity to speak about the tax system.
Warren is holding a hearing next week, called Creating Opportunity Through a Fairer Tax System, where she will discuss her wealth tax proposal, which would enact additional taxes on households with net worths of $50 million and above. Warren invited Cooperman one of her most vocal critics to testify, but he rejected the invitation, calling it self-serving and disingenuous.
THR Illustration / Disney: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Castle: Disneyland Resort/Christian Thompson; Becker: Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.
Abigail Disney (left) and Adrienne Becker set up Level Forward as a public benefit corporation, designed to be a for-profit entity, but one that calls for serving the public good.
The company, co-founded with Adrienne Becker to back inclusive projects and promote an equitable workplace, now finds itself reckoning with internal missteps. Says Disney: We own the ways in which we ve messed up.
In early 2018, philanthropist and filmmaker Abigail Disney wanted to found a company to reclaim Hollywood from its most infamous tyrant, Harvey Weinstein. But as Disney s aspirational company, Level Forward, got off the ground, some of its own staff and contractors, particularly women of color, felt disempowered by a top-down culture, according to interviews with 15 current and former employees and business partners.
Abigail Disney Admits ‘Missteps,’ Internal Dissent at Level Forward: ‘We F–ed Up’
“We own the ways in which we’ve messed up. Where we’ve learned of problems, we’ve tried to course-correct,” co-founder says
Brian Welk | April 21, 2021 @ 9:44 AM
Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Women s Media Center)
Abigail Disney is admitting that the company culture at Level Forward, the aspirational film and theater company she co-founded, has been laden with “missteps” after former employees of color spoke out about internal dissent in the company.
Disney’s admission comes in response to an article published in The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday that describes accounts from 15 current and former employees and business partners at Level Forward. Among the complaints are claims that staff of color were minimized, were not included in key meetings in the work place and that promises of equity in the company were not met compared to white employees.
Last modified on Sat 3 Apr 2021 06.33 EDT
Abigail Disney has always been very, very rich, or, as she describes it, âtoo richâ. The money came with her name: she is the granddaughter of Roy Disney who, with his brother Walt, founded the Walt Disney Company in 1923. Disney, 61, refuses to say how much she has, but acknowledges she would have been a billionaire in her own right had she not realised in her 20s that it was her fortune that was making her miserable, and decided to start giving it away.
She has been donating to good causes ever since â $72m (£52m) and counting, mostly to groups helping women in prison, women living with HIV, and victims of domestic violence. But giving it away is no longer enough. She wants the tax collector to take more money, not only from her, but from âall of the absurdly rich people across the worldâ.