Reports indicate former House Of The Dragon showrunner Miguel Sapochnik is a total wife guy
Per a new report, Miguel Sapochnik departed House Of The Dragon after HBO wouldn't include his wife Alexis Raben on the production team for the second season
Aux News Miguel Sapochnik
“Wife guys” are no new phenomenon in society—often maligned and notoriously adoring, this genre of man saw some memorable scandals in 2022 (the scales evened out, of course, with a Bennifer wedding complete with a quote from “Live By Night.”)
The criteria for what exactly makes a wife guy isn’t defined by paperwork, but some actions of spousal solidarity just speak for themselves. Case in point: a new report that former House Of The Dragon show-runner Miguel Sapochnik left the series after HBO refused to rehire his wife onto the production team for season 2. The departure reportedly caused a blow-up between Sapochnik and HBO— and could potentially cost Sapochnik some of his first-look deals with the network.
According to a report from Puck—a new media startup helmed by journalists hailing from outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, CNN, and The Atlantic— Sapochnik’s exit had less to do with amicable creative differences and more to do with his wife Alexis Raben’s involvement in the show. Raben—who was a credited producer on HotD season 1—appeared in multiple episodes as Talya, a handmaid for Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).
Per Puck’s Matthew Belloni, when Sapochnik requested that Raben secure a spot on his and Ryan Condal’s producing team for season 2, HBO “politely said no,” and cited Raben’s inexperience as a deciding factor. (HBO did not respond to a request for comment on this story.) The disagreement reportedly became so fraught, a mediator was brought in to de-escalate matters. Ultimately, Sapochnik chose not to continue working on HotD after Raben was left off the team— he left the show, fired his agents at WME, and moved to Raben’s agency, CAA. (Deadline reported that Sapochnik signed with CAA back in November.)
This new picture of Sapochnik’s HotD reads quite differently from the amicable split initially presented to the public in August. When Sapochnik cemented the decision with a statement, he emphasized his pride in HOTD season 1, and the “enthusiastic reaction” it received. “It was incredibly tough to decide to move on, but I know that it is the right choice for me, personally and professionally,” Sapochnik shared at the time. We can imagine why he’d feel that way— especially “personally.” As of this writing, HBO did not return The A.V. Club’s request for comment.
80 Comments
I imagine if she were even remotely qualified and performed the bare minimum during season 1, they would have had no issue allowing it. Sounds like that wasn’t the case.
Yeah, this feels like someone trying to double their paycheck by getting his wife hired for no show job
Is it because she was walking around the set yelling “Oh, my vagina!” all day?
Anyone who thinks the “wife guy” concept is something that really needs discussion or elaboration, please report to the nearest reeducation clamps.
Not sure how clamping their nipples is going to help, but I support you.
We aren’t clamping nipples
The term we use in the scene is “sissy udders”
Then fuck it, I’m out!
Well, I don’t like the sound of these here “Boncentration Bamps”!
Reeducation Clamp. Creators of the the classic mangas Magic Knights Reearth, Cardclamptor Sakura, and Clampbits.
I’m always happy to see Clamps, but it was actually a reference to a 22-year-old Sluggy Freelance strip that I doubt anyone else remembers:
Woah! Anybody who got that reference before it was explained must be feeling on top of the world right now.
Probably. Let me check my notes.
It’s just another thing the wives in the neighborhood will discuss, and then be dissatisfied about.
So, to be clear, the AV Club is anti-“nepo baby,” but throwing your weight around to try to get your unqualified wife hired as a producer is an act of “spousal solidarity.”
She was already a producer on season 1, this is him quitting after she was removed for the second season.
It’s murky. She had a producer credit in season 1, but that could mean anything. Reading between the lines, I’d guess he he wanted her to take on a more hands-on role in production and HBO balked at the expanded responsibilities.
For what it’s worth, I’m not anti-nepo baby. I truly don’t give a shit about the nepo babies. And I also don’t think he was throwing his weight around to try to get his wife hired. He asked for her to be hired. She wasn’t. He quit. That doesn’t help his wife or him. so it’s not like he bullied anyone or anything. I have no opinion on her qualifications, as I’ve never heard of either of these people.
Fine, he attempted to throw his weight around and failed. When matters have escalated to such an extent that mediators need to be brought in and you quit in a huff when you don’t get your way I think you’ve moved beyond merely asking. Either way this is, by definition, nepotism.
Idk. It’s getting into meaningless semantics now, I suppose, but I don’t know that simply asking for something counts as throwing one’s weight around, and I don’t know why he’s solely to blame for the matter escalating, or why you assume he quit “in a huff.” But either way, if there is a kind of nepotism that ends with neither one of you having a job, I don’t think it’s the kind we need to worry about.
Nepo wife
“We’re your typical Hollywood family: one girlboss, one wife guy, one nepo baby.”
Necrowife?‘That’s not a zombie, it’s my wife!’
Ken Wahl ISWifeGuy!
So, to be clear, the AV Club is anti-“nepo baby,” but throwing your weight around to try to get your unqualified wife hired as a producer is an act of “spousal solidarity.”That’s not what it says, though. They don’t defend him for trying to keep her on in season 2, as your comment implies; they use it as a reason he might be classified as a wife guy.
As with many newswires, the tone and point of view expressed in the article are…difficult to interpret, but I’d argue that the phrase “spousal solidarity” has inherently positive connotations. “He’s sticking by his wife!”
Damn it – it doesn’t *matter* that OP got the facts, and her existing role, and the article’s intended inferences wrong!What matters is that he’s really, really angry at the *website’s* writing quality!!
I’ll cop to not really getting what the article’s “intended inferences” are, but I’m aware of the facts and I stand by my interpretation. I will stipulate that I should have said that Sapochnik was trying to throw his weight around to get his unqualified wife re-hired, however. And as always with crummy newswires, I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed.
And the term “nepo babies” is thrown around at anyone who has a famous parent in the business, whether there’s evidence of wrong doing or not. This is literally someone who tried to have his wife hired and quit when the network wouldn’t.
I don’t get this shit. Miguel Sapochnik advocated for his wife and was willing to quit a prestigious job to do so. And this is…bad? When the flip side is John Mulaney discarding his ex-wife for Olivia Munn or Adam Levine acting like an inept teenage fuckboi, why the hell is “being supportive of your wife” worthy of pop cultural derision? Genuinely, why do you seem to feel Miguel Sapochnik deserves to be mocked or belittled for valuing his wife’s welfare over a job?
I have never heard of “wife guy” prior to this article. I think it must be something that the youths of today say and the AVClub felt the need to work it into a story, in an attempt to be relevant.That said, I don’t know that I read this article as being particularly deriding, unless the term “wife guy” itself is innately derisive, but again, I have no idea about that, not being in touch with the youths of today.
I get OP’s confusion. The article they link to from the first words of this article says that ‘wife guys’ are men who got famous for things their wives did (which tracks with the Wiki definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_guy) and then provides a bunch of examples that make them all seem like sexist leeches. So it’s pretty weird that the article then praises Sapochnik and calls him a ‘wife guy’ for standing by his wife.
My guess is that the author of this piece thought the term meant something different. And, given that the AV Club’s editorial standards are basically non-existent at this point, the mistake was allowed to stand. Either that or they just wanted to throw a new internet buzzword into the headline to maximize clicks at the expense of their credibility.
Its odd as the main definition of the term that I gathered during the recent scandal is ‘guy whose public persona is defined by love for his spouse and dedication to his marriage’, hence why its was a bit of a deal that multiple famous ‘wife guys’ got caught cheating on their wives.
Yeah that is how I took it as well. But oddly even when “wife guys” were not found cheating or being bad to their wives it seems to be user far more in the negative term. The idea that a guy being a loving supportive spouse is a bad thing, or something to tease them about.
“Wife guy” as it originally emerged, referred to husbands who were so performatively and over-the-top supportive of their wives that it called their true motives into question. The ur-example is the “I love my curvy wife!” guy,* who went viral because he was so gosh darn proud of himself for being attracted to a woman who is (slightly) overweight by conventional beauty standards. *(https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/man-dragged-for-instagram-post-about-loving-curvy-wife.html)
That whole affair proves, if nothing else, what a colossal mistake social media is. A stupid statement by a random nobody that would have been lost to time in days of yore, instead blows up into a culture war for no good god damn reason.
The common usage of this term (which definitely isn’t new, sorry people above accusing the “youths”) is someone who is obnoxious in their constant public adoration of their wives. The disdain towards the personality type is either because PDA is always a little icky or because it sometimes feels performative (look at the recent scandal with the Try Guys YouTuber who apparently* talked about how great his wife was in all his video and podcast appearances, but then was simultaneously cheating on her).The term isn’t super negative. It’s more calling someone a little annoying and gross about how much they talk up their spouse. As such, the tone of this article (lightly mocking) feels appropriate for a situation that seems odd but isn’t necessarily that bad (we don’t know how qualified this woman was for the job).* I say “apparently” because I absolutely never watched the fucking Try Guys and only know about them from the fun we all had mocking the scandal.
That sounds plausible – I could see how the term’s original meaning would kind of drift to become something more negative over time, so fair enough. It’s possible my criticism of the AV Club was a bit too harsh there.
Having said that: all the Google results I saw (tbf I didn’t look very hard) emphasized the negative, performative/parasitic aspects of wife guys, making it sound like it was a very negative term. Seems like if Sapochnik literally did quit a prestigious job for his (comparatively unknown) wife, that would eliminate both criteria and make him your bog-standard supportive husband, rather than anything that requires a neologism to describe.
Well I certainly won’t stand idly by while these aspersions are being cast on the nonexistent editorial staff here at the AVClub!
“Wife guy” is a couple of years old now, but you might have to be terminally online to see it in the wild.
it must be something that the youths of today say and now I feel the need to work it into my comments, in an attempt to be relevant:“That wife guy is so on-fleeq that he has me totally trip-hoppin’ and thirsty for a bromance!”How was that?
I thought it was fleek? Aw man.
I really don’t know.
Me neither. Let’s choose to remain ignorant about this.
obviously it was bodacious, and mint, and it slaps– Not a Boomer, just a Regular 2023 Kid
Yer buggin’, man.
You nailed it bro fr fr no cap.
Froynlaven!
I literally had never heard the term until earlier today when there was an Onion slideshow about it, and then this article popped up. Synergy!
It’s bad if she was unqualified for the job or did it so poorly the studio didn’t want to hire her back.
there are other options, you know. like:don’t cheat on your wife AND don’t throw a hissy fit and quit just because you can’t leverage your own power to get your underqualified wife a job
Bring back D&D. Let them write it. They can fix all this.
oh thank fucking christ
also sorry not really sure if that’s the proper response or if I give a shit I’m trying my best here
She’s an actress with zero experience (at least according to her IMDB) when it comes to production. If she wants a job in production she can start at the bottom like everyone else as an office PA. Putting a political hire without any experience any higher on the production team could absolutely sink your production.
I’m curious why she was repped by CAA if she had such paltry experience, unless her signing there was a move by CAA to get Miguel Sapochnik as a client. In which case this is just a whole Hollywood talent ouroboros.
Also just seems weird that they wouldn’t just shrug and give a guy who directed some of the best GoT eps, and is now running their most important series, a minor concession like this.
The wife must have just been toxic as a producer. She probably didn’t know what she was doing and fostered a lot of resentment among the crew. There’s no other reason HBO would take a stand like this, knowing it would make things super weird with the showrunner of their most expensive and culturally relevant series. Things must have been so crazy behind the scenes that they felt they couldn’t allow it.
she was most likely repped as an actress…which is what she appears to be instead of a producer. Why HBO didn’t go for the grift is up to them, but it’s probably because if he’s performatively wifey, they have become performatively cheap.
She’s repped as an actress. I have no knowledge of her acting experience. She could also be in modeling. This experience does not translate to production.It is also not a minor concession. A producer can really REALLY mess up the day to day. Suddenly she has the power to give notes on anything. Why? Also giving her a producer role would really not sit well with the rest of the crew (aka the people with years of experience doing the relatively thankless behind the scenes work). It would, in my experience, have the ability to tank the entire show.
He could also be designing a signature brand of sparkling wine.
“I’m curious why she was repped by CAA if she had such paltry experience,”
She’s. An. Actress.
It’s not exactly minor concession. Getting producer credit gives a cut of the money made after filming and sales and all that, plus getting credit for any awards. She likely did not do any actual “producing” as the job is, and he got mad that they said no this time around to giving her the credit. First time around the credit was likely given because at that point nobody knew it would be the hit that it was, now that it’s clearly valuable, HBO wants to put their foot down.
So….a husband?
Remember when The AV Club used to have its own identity, rather than just endlessly regurgitating stale Twitter memes from a few years ago?
No, I don’t. I remember when they regurgitated Reddit posts though.
Yes but it’s getting foggier
In general it’s a bad idea to give jobs to your spouse and/or children, because regardless of their qualifications or performance on the job, it leads to situations like this.
Great now we can actually see what’s going on in the show
So, I don’t have to worry not able to see any night time scene again? Trying to defend your lack of cinematography knowledge by saying it’s a creative decision are stupid.
Oh, this is that douchebag? I’m glad he won’t be back.
this is an odd comments section. The term “wife guy” has been around for a long time, was really front and center for the scandal and SNL skit about the Try Guys and the Maroon 5 doofus. Only one poster on the thread correctly defined wife guy, which is somebody whose performative love for his wife is so much a part of his public personality that it calls his motives into question. That two wife guys got caught cheating quickly is not surprising…if your wife is a commodity you are looking to trade up. Wife guys rarely define their relationship to their wives in terms of their wife’s independence, it’s all in relation to how it reflects on them and/or how she personally caters to only them (I will never look up the try guys ever but there was some sort of “try guy wives” so even on her own she could be defined by her attachment to him and him by his having her as an attachment). If Sapochnik thought it was so important, they could have offered for her to work, get the credit, and get no pay…with her level of experience that sounds like a good trade.HOW have I missed that House of the Dragon can be referred to as “HotD”??? this is the greatest thing today. It sounds like they might not have ensured the quality of the HotD, maybe they should have went for the grift.
GRRM loves the Hot D nickname according to a youtuber whose name I blank on atm.
Matthew Belloni’s been reporting some weird shit lately. I guess there’s a reason he was no longer employed by THR.
Oh I get it, like when “Girl Dad” was a thing you are trying to make a thing out of “Wife Guy.” The cringe this site produces is next level.
This is a weird hill to die on, for both parties. Why not let the showrunner of your brand new hit get away with a nepotism hire? Why throw away a career-defining gig for your wife’s fledgling attempts at moving into production? I’m guessing either she’s REALLY toxic, or the relationship between Sapochnik and HBO was already strained for some other reason.
Is this a good or bad thing? Please rewrite this article for people who aren’t terminally online
Imagine writing this story without the insipid, trendy, red pill-y “wife guy” angle. Nepotism is Hollywood is hardly a new thing.