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Reese Witherspoon Weighs in on Bradley Cooper's Plan to Help End Gender Wage Gap

Oscar winner said more industries should also be talking about inequality of the sexes

By Marc Malkin Oct 19, 2015 12:00 PMTags
Watch: Reese Witherspoon Weighs in on the Gender Wage Gap

Reese Witherspoon is giving props to Bradley Cooper's fight for gender equality.

The American Hustle star recently said that he would start revealing his salary to his female costars to help in their contract negotiations.

"That's great," Witherspoon told me Sunday at the L.A. County Walk to Defeat ALS. "I love to hear that."

Jennifer Lawrence set off the most recent wave of headlines about the issue when she wrote in an essay for Lenny saying she was scared of asking for more money because she feared being labeled "difficult."

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The Hunger Games star wrote, "At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn't worry about being 'difficult' or 'spoiled.' I'm over trying to find the 'adorable' way to state my opinion and still be likable! F--k that."

Cooper commented that he was upset when he learned how much Amy Adams was paid for her work in American Hustle. "She worked every day on that movie and got paid nothing. It's really horrible actually, it's almost embarrassing," he said.

Witherspoon also said, "It's great that Hollywood is taking steps in the right direction" to correct things, but stressed that all industries "should be talking about it."