Will Kristen Stewart’s cheating scandal with director Rupert Sanders devastate the burgeoning “Snow White and the Huntsman” franchise, and their careers?
Backlash among “Twilight” fans hit a fever pitch after Stewart, 22, was caught betraying co-star and boyfriend Robert Pattinson with married dad of two Sanders, 41 — and some in Hollywood are buzzing the affair will tarnish both.
“None of the studios are going to want to work with a married director who publicly hooks up with the much younger leading lady,” sniffed one Hollywood source. Another added, “Female moviegoers were just looking for a reason to dislike Kristen Stewart, and now they’ve got it.”
PHOTOS: KRISTEN STEWART AND MORE CHEATING CELEBS
But others say that within anything-goes Hollywood, this “momentary indiscretion,” as Stewart calls it, seems tame. “Look at this town,” snorted a hardened showbiz vet. “You’ve got top executives who get caught getting b – – – jobs at parties becoming Hollywood’s biggest producers. [Former New Line president Michael De Luca scandalously received oral pleasure in full view at a 1998 Oscar party, and — rather aptly — is now producing hot franchise “Fifty Shades of Grey.” If [Sanders] movie didn’t do well, then it would be a problem.”
Universal hasn’t announced a “Snow White” sequel, but the studio hired “Mission: Impossible” writer David Koepp for a follow-up. Sanders is reportedly interested in coming back, while the actors had options for two sequels.
But uniting Sanders with the original’s players — including Stewart, his wife Liberty Ross and Charlize Theron — would now seem more difficult. It’s bad timing, since the first “Snow,” which was Sanders’ feature debut, made $381 million.
A source close to Sanders says he has other potential projects but is “focused on his family.”
Stewart, meanwhile, is even getting bashed by “Real Housewives.” “Same story,” tweeted Brandi Glanville, whose ex-husband Eddie Cibrian cheated with Leanne Rimes. “Friends with the wife and kids & [bleep]ing the husband when we think no one is looking.”