The ongoing DEI battles in Red State America have come to Hollywood in a long-anticipated way. With support from one of Donald Trump’s closest aides, a SEAL Team staffer has filed a discrimination lawsuit against CBS and Paramount Global, claiming he was denied a writing job on the show because he is white and male.
‘Defendants failed to hire or promote Mr. Beneker due to his race, gender, and heterosexual orientation,’ the complaint from longtime SEAL Team script coordinator and freelance writer Brian Beneker reads. Beneker says in his complaint demanding a jury trial that he suffered because he was not part of “favored hiring groups; that is, they were not white, LGBTQ, or female,” and that “unlawful policies” increasingly attacked diversity, equity, and inclusion measures.
Click to read Beneker’s discrimination lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in California.
In fact, Beneker claims that in 2019, he directly asked Spencer Hudnut, the current head of the SEAL Team program, why a man was hired as a writer by John Glenn, the previous head of the program, after Glenn told him that “there were already too many writers and CBS had no room to hire” him.
“Hudnut indicated that it was because he was black,” the complaint asserts, without providing any further evidence.
“This balancing policy has created a situation where white, heterosexual men require ‘additional qualifications’ (including military experience or prior writing experience) to be hired as writers when compared to their non-white, LGBTQ, or female counterparts who do not require such ‘additional qualifications,’” the filing reads, criticizing assistant writers and others who have been promoted.
While continuing to work as a script coordinator, Beneker penned three episodes of the David Boreanaz-led series in 2019. He has another episode that is set to air as the eighth episode of the show’s upcoming seventh and final season. During production, that Season 7 script was co-written by Dana Greenblatt, co-writer of SEAL Team, a woman.
Against that backdrop, Beneker’s lawsuit, filed on February 29, seeks $500,000 in lost wages and “an order requiring Defendants to provide Plaintiff with full-time employment as a producer.”
Backed by the America First Legal Fund, founded by former Trump White House counsel Stephen Miller, Beneker also seeks a federal court ruling declaring that “CBS and Paramount Global’s actual hiring policies violate… the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Additionally, he seeks “a permanent injunction prohibiting Defendants from violating applicable anti-discrimination laws.”
Now, let’s put some actual policies on the table.
Money is one thing, as are other relief requests in Beneker’s bitter fight against Paramount Global’s so-called “balanced policies.” But he’ll almost certainly find himself unable to secure a writing gig on SEAL Team: The show, currently in production, will wrap up next year after its upcoming seventh season on Paramount+. That means the show will be over and done with long before Beneker’s case goes to trial, let alone reaches a verdict.
But Beneker and the lawyers for America First Legal Foundation know that, and that’s not the real goal in another culture war that’s clearly playing out in Tinseltown during an election year. More likely, the real goal is to score points with the source of some of the Democrats’ biggest donations and bolster the MAGA base.
Criticized in a 12-page complaint for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the company’s representation and inclusion policies, CBS and Paramount Global declined to comment on Beneker’s actions today. If they do, this post will be updated.
Deadline has also reached out to Hudnut’s agency, CAA, for a statement on the industry expert’s alleged comments and implications in Brenker’s lawsuit. If or when we hear back from them, we will update this post as well.
Beneker has worked for SEAL Team since 2017 and was previously a script coordinator on Sons of Anarchy, Missing, and other shows.
To tell the story, Beneker is represented by the San Diego law firm JW Howard Attorneys and the America First Legal Foundation.
Since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies in college and university admissions last year, AFLF has filed a lawsuit
