NY Times notes pendulum swing, Hollywood is ‘Hot, Horny and White’ Again

Grasping defenses of woke ideology came amid an acknowledgement from the New York Times that the pendulum has swung away and, “Hollywood Is, ‘Hot, Horny and White’ Again.”

Such was the title of The Wrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman’s op-ed for the Gray Lady that pointed to recent trends out of Tinseltown, which run contrary to agenda-driven content that has seemingly shunned more people from theaters than COVID policies. From ad campaigns featuring Sydney Sweeney to “anti-woke” remakes, even Netflix — known for casting non-white actors to play white historical figures — was spotlighted to highlight the end of the “progressive snowflake era.”

“Hollywood is rapidly shifting away from the socially conscious framework that for more than a decade has driven its narratives, casting and green lights,” asserted Waxman after describing Amazon MGM’s $2 million payment to writer Joe Eszterhas for a spec script of an “‘anti-woke’ reboot” of his 1992 “Basic Instinct,” a deal that would score him another $2 million if the film is made.

“If more evidence were needed that the progressive snowflake era of Hollywood has officially melted, ‘Basic Instinct,’ a movie that cemented the ice-pick-wielding post-feminist man-slayer in the character of Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell, is back,” she stated as sights shifted to streaming.

Specifically pointing to the Netflix show “The Hunting Wives,” the editor-in-chief described the show with a summary of the lead character, a Texan wife of a wealthy businessman who has an affair with a pastor’s teenage son, before saying, “Nearly everyone on the show is hot, horny, and white.”

After referencing some of the latest content on “South Park” — with a backdrop note on the Paramount merger with Skydance that followed a settlement with President Donald Trump over election interference claims for the “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris — Waxman addressed the denim-clad elephant in the room, the reportedly registered Republican Sweeney who melted her own fair share of snowflakes doing an ad campaign for American Eagle.

‘All hot girls vote Republican!’ Trump, MAGA pile love on Sydney Sweeney after learning her party registration https://t.co/vASm77OAQO

— BPR (@BIZPACReview) August 4, 2025

After downplaying the backlash from leftists, contending, “The right-wing outrage machine has revved up over a few critical comments that the ad somehow is code for white supremacy,” Waxman went on to write, “But, surprise: It’s had no echo in Burbank or Beverly Hills, where not so long ago, Ms. Sweeney might have had to apologize for her insensitivity and make a donation to the A.C.L.U.”

The op-ed went on to raise Hollywood’s DEI efforts, including the controversial Academy Awards standards that set “underrepresented racial or ethnic group” quotas for consideration. “The new rules resulted in a strict, if unspoken set of boundaries that tacitly put certain topics and categories outside the accepted circles of casting and green lights. It isn’t only that conservative groups grip that ‘their’ stories… don’t get produced.”

“But I also can’t count the number of times I’ve heard quiet frustration from a reasonably accomplished white male screenwriter who felt cast out by the top talent agencies. In the process of ‘recentering’ Hollywood, some people suddenly felt shunted to the side,” she said before it was suggested backlash against those polices may have been “because the leadership in Hollywood remains overwhelmingly white and male.”

“At the talent agencies where Hollywood’s hustlers are out selling scripts and projects, no longer are queer writers of color, for example, so much in demand. No longer are preferred pronouns expected on your email signature,” Waxman pointed out before concluding in part, “In the end, Hollywood is in the business of giving its audience what it wants, not what it thinks it should want.”