If you didn’t already think that blogging was a particularly cut-throat, dog-eat-blog world, then perhaps this more-than-slightly-odd story will change your mind: Alex Billington, founder of FirstShowing.net, has been accused of “blackmailing” Universal to gain entry into a preview screening of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World at Comic-Con International by his peers.
The accusation comes in a letter sent to Hollywood studios, written by Hitfix.com’s Drew McWeeny and co-signed by almost 20 other contributors to sites like Ain’t It Cool News, CHUD, Cinematical and Collider, which calls on studios to “sever professional ties to Alex Billington and First Showing” after Billington displayed “the most clear-cut case of blackmail that I have ever seen,” according to a report on The Wrap.
The blackmail in question centers around the Thursday night surprise screening of Scott Pilgrim at Comic-Con; members of the press – including myself and other Techland contributors – were invited to attend ahead of time, on condition of keeping the screening secret, but Billington was not amongst them. Instead, according to McWeeny’s letter, he threatened to make the screening public knowledge unless he was invited, a move that apparently worked. Billington denies the blackmail charge, however:
The information in Drew’s letter isn’t true and it seems as if it was crafted purely as a vicious attack against me by my competitors in the industry… I’m hurt and saddened that people I once called friends would participate in a smear campaign against me and my website, but I do certainly appreciate all the support Drew and the rest of my peers once gave me when I was a small, growing website. I have always learned from any mistake I’ve made and this is no exception. This is more than I have wanted to say publicly, as it is a private matter that I am still resolving with Universal.
Interestingly, he doesn’t deny telling Universal that he knew about the screening, and admits to being “overly harsh” when communicating with the studio. Universal have so far declined to comment on the matter.
More On Techland:
The Guy Who Hates Comic-Con: Oh My God Shut Up About Comic-Con
The “Scott Pilgrim Versus The World” surprise screening and Metric concert