14 DAY TRIAL // These past couple of days, Sony Pictures has been hit hard by the hack from a group calling itself Guardians Of Peace or #GOP, which has been releasing private conversations on a variety of topics between some of the biggest names in the industry.
Two of these are Sony co-chairwoman Amy Pascal and bigtime producer Scott Rudin, a longtime partner of Pascal and Sony. Their email exchanges on a variety of topics, from the ill-fated “Jobs” movie, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Hart and President Barack Obama, have been revealed to be at times funny, occasionally hilarious, consistently rude and infuriatingly racist and offensive.
They’re apologizing.
Scott Rudin is sorry
Scott Rudin has the reputation of being one of the nastiest men in showbiz, the absolute worst in terms of being a professional or, for that matter, a nice guy to be around at any time. His emails to Pascal, with whom he fought about the “Jobs” movie (which Sony eventually lost to Universal) and about Angelina Jolie, reveal that.
However, in the latest round of leaks, Rudin and Pascal seemed to be having a blast not fighting, but trading racist jokes about President Barack Obama, and insulting actor Kevin Hart for being a “w**re” for asking more money to promote a film on social media.
Had it not been for Obama’s unwilling involvement in this, neither would have apologized, most likely. But since it was, here is Rudin’s apology: “Private emails between friends and colleagues written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity, even when the content of them is meant to be in jest, can result in offense where none was intended. I made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny.”
He continues to say that his apology extends to all those who were in any way offended or hurt by the things he said, because he never meant it that way.
Sony’s Amy Pascal is also sorry
Taking a cue from her old pal Rudin, the Sony co-chairwoman has also issued a formal apology, worded in the same “I’m sorry if you were offended” manner. She insists that what the world got to see of her character in those emails is not an accurate “reflection of who I am,” because they were taken out of context.
In apologizing, both are naturally trying to do damage control to the best of their abilities: Sony was already hit hard by the hack and Sony Pictures has seen better days. The last thing they need right now is bad media because their hot-shots are basically spoiled children acting out on the playground.
