Sydney Sweeney hits back in blistering statement: ‘Shameful’

A day after a savage diss from a top female Hollywood producer, actress Sydney Sweeney has returned fire, issuing a brutal dressing down.

Sydney Sweeney in Anyone But You.

Sydney Sweeney has hit back at a top Hollywood exec who declared she was “not pretty” and “can’t act,” with Sweeney’s representatives calling the woman’s attack “shameful.”

Veteran film and television producer Carol Baum, whose films include Father of the Bride, Fly Away Home and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, claimed that Sweeney is “unwatchable” in her hit film Anyone But You.

Sweeney today hit back, with a representative for the actress releasing a blistering statement to Variety.

“How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman. If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character,” the statement read.

Sydney Sweeney is so hot right now … Picture: Getty

… but producer Carol Baum doesn't get the fuss.

“I don’t get Sydney Sweeney,” Baum told a New York Times journalist at an industry event, according to the Daily Mail.

Baum said that she watched Sweeney’s smash hit rom com Anyone But You on a recent flight, keen to see the “actress who everybody loves now.”

“I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie – sorry to people who love this movie – [this] romantic comedy where they hate each other,” she continued.

Baum, who teaches a class at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, revealed that she even asked her students to “explain” Sweeney’s success to her.

“I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’”

She claimed that “nobody had an answer” for her question.

Sweeney and co-star Glen Powell’s film was a box office smash.

Meanwhile, TMZ reports that Baum feels “regret” over her comments after copping an online backlash from Sweeney’s fans.

“She wishes she never would’ve made her original comments,” the outlet said, “and that crapping on an actor like that in public usually isn’t her style.”

It’s not the first time in recent weeks Sweeney’s been forced to speak out after her name was dragged into the headlines: last month, she risked a minor fan backlash when it was reported that she had signed on to star in the supernatural thriller Day Drinker alongside Johnny Depp.

Depp has been largely shunned by Hollywood since his very public court case against ex-wife Amber Heard in 2022.

Sweeney and Powell hit the red carpet together. Picture: Getty

Fans quickly took to social media to express their displeasure at the possibility Sweeney’s next film would see her co-starring alongside Depp – so the actress herself logged on to address the speculation.

She batted away the “rumours” while also encouraging fans to instead go see her current movie, Immaculate.

Baum may not have been a fan, but Sweeney’s rom-com Anyone But You has now grossed well over $US200 million at the worldwide box office – a huge return on a movie that cost around $US25 million to make.

This makes it officially the highest-grossing live Shakespeare adaptation in cinema history (it’s loosely based on the Bard’s Much Ado About Nothing).