Christy Carlson Romano Says Shia LaBeouf Trash-Talked "Lizzie McGuire" and She Was Paid Half His Salary

Christy Carlson Romano just pulled back the curtain on her“Even Stevens”days, and the revelations are doing numbers. She says co-star Shia LaBeouf constantly trash-talked Hilary Duff’s“Lizzie McGuire”while the two Disney Channel shows battled it out in the ratings. According to Romano, Duff had no idea, and LaBeouf was fiercely competitive because he felt his future depended on the show succeeding after a tough childhood.

Romano, who is promoting her new memoir, also dropped a detail that’s sparking bigger conversations: she says she was paid $6,000 per episode while LaBeouf made $12,000, despite the two being co-leads with equal screen time. That pay gap claim is resonating with fans who remember the era and with anyone who’s ever found out a coworker made more for the same work.

As for where the former co-stars stand now, Romano says they don’t speak, and she has no interest in changing that. The whole story is reviving early 2000s Disney nostalgia while raising real questions about how young stars were compensated. Which show were you loyal to back then,“Even Stevens”or“Lizzie McGuire”?