A famed Hollywood producer and the Sony co-chair went at it in emails exposed by a recent hack.
Some things are better said over the phone. Sony Pictures is likely in a state of total panic as leaked emails continue to reveal embarrassing and inflammatory conversations from many of its highest positioned employees.
Sony Pictures was targeted by a group calling themselves Guardians of Peace. Starting on November 24, the yet-unknown group has been hacking the studio, revealing information about producer and star salaries and employee information, including such sensitive info as social security numbers. Much of the leak has proven somewhat inconsequential to Sony’s image—James Franco even used it as a source of humor for his Saturday Night Live opening monologue on the 6th—but some careers may end up damaged due to the latest round of revelations.
In particular, one set of emails has been dominating the headlines. Available in their entirety on defamer.gawker.com, emails sent from February to November of this year expose the ugly underside of the Hollywood business. Super producer Scott Rudin and Sony co-chair Amy Pascal apparently engaged in a vicious war over conflicting schedules between Rudin’s new Steve Jobs biopic and Sony’s desire to work with Angelina Jolie on a new Cleopatra movie.
Rudin took offense at the fact that Sony would reserve award-winning director David Fincher for Cleopatra, preventing him from working on the Jobs pics. In quotes now seen around the world, he referred to Jolie as “a minimally talented spoiled brat,” as well as a “camp event and a celebrity.” After more back-and-forth, he promises Pascal that she has “destroyed [her] relationships with half the town over how you’ve behaved.” Pascal at one point has had enough and tells a fellow executive, “Get rid of him.”
Rudin and the Jobs project are now working with Universal. Pascal and Jolie have yet to comment on the leaked emails.
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