Sean Penn attacked employees of his nonprofit organization that helps administer COVID-19 vaccines in Los Angeles after two of them complained about online working conditions.
The Oscar-winning actor wrote a harsh 2,200-word e-mail to employees on Friday, accusing the unnamed pair of “obscene criticism” and saying they should quit, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“For anyone who has written them, to understand that in every cell of my body there is a vitriol for the way your actions are so harmful to your brothers and sisters in your arms,” Penn wrote in the letter that was circulated at Times.
The letter came after two people who said they worked for Penn, the Community Organized Relief Effort, commented on a January 28 New York Times story that described a day at the Dodger Stadium mass vaccination site.
A self-described member of the “CORE staff” said employees were overwhelmed after LA Mayor Eric Garcetti changed the stadium from a virus testing site to a vaccination center.
The staff works 18 hours a day, six days a week, “without the possibility to take breaks”, the person wrote.
The other anonymous scribe complained that the article mentions that the site workers were receiving “Krispy Kreme for breakfast and the subway for lunch”.
“Usually we don’t get breakfast, just coffee,” the person wrote, adding that “NO” lunch was on the subway, but the same old salad is wrapped up every day. It’s free lunch for staff / volunteers, so I’m not complaining, but still … not Subway. ”
In his hot email, Penn, 60, described his “grave concern” over the comments, which he considered “a broad betrayal of all,” the LA Times reported.
He said the “shameful entries” were “very visible,” although they are part of at least 150 readers’ responses to the NY Times article.
Penn said CORE – which he co-founded after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti – has “strong grievance procedures and other endless internal avenues for productive criticism” from staff.
Anyone “prone to a culture of grievance” and “widespread cyber-crying” should give up, he added.
“It’s called giving up,” Penn wrote. “Give up CORE. Give up your colleagues who will not give up. Give up your peers who deeply recognize that this is a moment in time. A moment of service that we all have to embody sometimes to the point of collapse ”.