Bond girl Eva Green branded a ‘diva’ in London High Court battle over failed film

Eva Green has been well and truly shaken and stirred as the Casino Royale actress’ court battle against White Lantern Films continues.

The 42-year-old star is suing the production company over her $1 million fee, after her sci-fi film A Patriot, in which she was supposed to take on the starring role and an executive producer part, stopped filming in October 2019.

While White Lantern Films state that Eva made ‘unreasonable demands’ and pulled out of the project amidst calling a film producer an ‘inexperienced, pretentious moron’ and the crew ‘peasants’, Eva’s lawyer, Edmund Cullen, defended her by saying the company wanted to damage her reputation by calling her a ‘diva’.

Cullen told the High Court that the production company’s argument relies on painting Eva "as a diva in order to make headlines and damage her reputation…[they] want to blacken the name of an actress who has not breached a contract or missed a day of filming during her 20-year career."

The term ‘diva’ often has negative connotations, with the Oxford dictionary even stating, ‘a self-important person who is temperamental and difficult to please (typically used of a woman).’

In light of the recent evidence given at the 11-day trial, multiple sources have declared that the ‘diva’ brand has been unfairly attributed by producers and financiers to shift the blame for the collapse of the sci-fi film.

Throughout the entertainment industry, leading ladies have often been called ‘divas’ when they make power moves and take control of their careers - whether this term should be taken as a compliment or criticism is truly still up for debate.

However, the word ‘diva’ actually derives from the Italian for a goddess or female deity and is closely associated with divine singers, nee prima donnas, due to their talents being idolised by the public.

For this reason, divas can also be attributed to female pop singers exemplified by the likes of Madonna, Mariah Carey or Ariana Grande, but it is mainly up to the public to decide which definition suits a person best.

Madonna’s voice has ‘often been criticised as being the weakest aspect of her performances’ but instead she drives the diva definition through her creative and commanding persona.

With a five-octave range and 18 number one Billboard Awards, the ‘Queen of Christmas’ herself, Mariah Carey, is a ‘self-proclaimed’ diva but has suggested that only part of the prima donna personality is true to who she is.

Mariah even confessed to playing into the ‘diva’ card seen through her outrageous concert demands and pretending she didn’t know who Jennifer Lopez was.

Lastly, the title of ‘mini-Mariah’ could be pegged on Miss Ariana Grande who also revealed that she acted differently after fans called her a diva due to her assertive nature and powerful voice.

Ariana admitted that the comment ‘f***ed her up a little bit’ when chatting to Zane Lowe for Apple Music, and the Thank U, Next singer stopped doing interviews to avoid her words getting twisted.

She spoke of the double standard between men and women, saying: "Because I have an opinion about something… if I have something to say regarding a choice that’s being made with my career or something… it always was in the past manipulated and turned into this negative thing, whereas I don’t see that with men."

A career choice very much up for debate at the moment is Eva Green’s, whose court case against White Lantern Films is due to last several more days.