Did Steven Spielberg Have Megan Fox Fired From 'Transformers' Over Hitler Crack?

June 20, 2011— -- When the new "Transformers" movie opens July 4 weekend, you won't be seeing Megan Fox.

A recent report reveals that the screen siren who got her break on the first two Transformer films was dumped from the franchise after Steven Spielberg ordered director Michael Bay to fire her. According to GQ, the legendary director didn't like it when Fox compared Bay to Hitler in a 2009 interview.

Calls to reps for Fox and Bay were not immediately returned. Spielberg's rep said he was out of town and would not be commenting.

Spielberg is the executive producer of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

Fox was replaced by Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntingdon-Whitley.

The 25-year-old actress had said the reason she left the "Transformers" series was to pursue other acting opportunities. But Bay recently revealed the real reason. "You know the Hitler thing. Steven (Spielberg) said, fire her right now," he told the July issue of GQ.

It all started when Fox gave an interview to London's Wonderland Magazine before filming began on the third installment. "[Bay] wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," she said. "So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward."

"He has no social skills at all," she continued. "And it's endearing to watch him. He's vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set he's a tyrant."

Bay later said that he was not hurt by the Hitler comment.

But apparently the damage had been done.

Fox's former co-star Shia LaBeouf told GQ: "She started s*** talking our captain. Which you can't do."

It's not the first time Fox got into a war of words with the director who made her a household name.

Also in 2009, Fox told Entertainment Weekly that "working with Michael Bay is not about an acting experience."

He quickly fired back.

"She says some very ridiculous things because she's 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do," Bay told The Wall Street Journal, before going on to list the names of some of the actors whose careers he helped launch, including Ben Affleck, Will Smith and Nicolas Cage.

"Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in 'Transformers,'" he said. "I like to think that I've had some luck in building actors' careers with my films."

One of his crew members backed up his claim.

In an open but unsigned letter currently posted on Bay's website, an anonymous crew member wrote: "Michael found this shy, inexperienced girl, plucked her out of total obscurity thus giving her the biggest shot of any young actresses' life."

"She was famous! She was the next Angelina Jolie, hooray! Wait a minute, two of us worked with Angelina -- second thought -- she's no Angelina. You see, Angelina is a professional," the crew member wrote. "We know this quite intimately because we've had the tedious experience of working with the dumb-as-a-rock Megan Fox on both 'Transformers' movies."