Bret Easton Ellis Tweets Sexist Insult About 'Zero Dark Thirty' Director Kathryn Bigelow

Getty Images

On the same day The Hollywood Reporter hosted a breakfast to honor the most powerful women in entertainment and the progress of women in Hollywood in general, as well as the misogyny target-turned-women's rights activist Sandra Fluke, Bret Easton Ellis demonstrated just how far the fight against sexism and ignorance still has to go. At 11:32 PT, the novelist-screenwriter took to Twitter to assert about the first woman to ever win a best director Oscar, "Kathryn Bigelow would be considered a mildly interesting filmmaker if she was a man but since she's a very hot woman she's really overrated."

our editor recommends

Hollywood's Power 100 Mingle at THR's Women in Entertainment Breakfast

Bigelow, who won the best director Oscar for The Hurt Locker (2009), has a new film coming out called Zero Dark Thirty, which will go into limited release Dec. 19. It recently began screening for critics and has been almost universally heralded as one of the year's best movies. Both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review bestowed upon it their best film awards. And I am currently predicting that it will score Oscar nominations for best picture, best director, best actress and best original screenplay, among others.

Ellis, meanwhile, probably is better known for his provocative statements than any of his films. The 48-year-old's opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, though -- he walked out of The Artist because he didn't find it entertaining but is now at work on a film starring Lindsay Lohan and a porn star.

Bigelow could not be reached for a reaction to Ellis' statement, as it came in the middle of the night. Ellis did not reply to a tweet about it.