It’s going to be alright, you guys. George Clooney, the self-appointed New Chairman of the Board, is here to soothe everyone. George gave a rather epic interview to Deadline about the Sony Hack, the fallout from the Sony Hack, and what Hollywood executives should be doing next. I’m not even going to be able to excerpt even half of this stuff (it’s SO LONG), so just go here to read the entire thing. The whole reason George is speaking out is because he and Bryan Lourd circulated a statement which they hoped every executive in Hollywood would sign. None did. Here’s the statement Clooney wanted everyone to sign (he provided it to Deadline):
On November 24 of this year, Sony Pictures was notified that it was the victim of a cyber attack, the effects of which is the most chilling and devastating of any cyber attack in the history of our country. Personal information including Social Security numbers, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and the full texts of emails of tens of thousands of Sony employees was leaked online in an effort to scare and terrorize these workers. The hackers have made both demands and threats. The demand that Sony halt the release of its upcoming comedy The Interview, a satirical film about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Their threats vary from personal—you better behave wisely—to threatening physical harm—not only you but your family is in danger. North Korea has not claimed credit for the attack but has praised the act, calling it a righteous deed and promising merciless measures if the film is released. Meanwhile the hackers insist in their statement that what they’ve done so far is only a small part of our further plan. This is not just an attack on Sony. It involves every studio, every network, every business and every individual in this country. That is why we fully support Sony’s decision not to submit to these hackers’ demands. We know that to give in to these criminals now will open the door for any group that would threaten freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberty. We hope these hackers are brought to justice but until they are, we will not stand in fear. We will stand together.
And no one signed it, because (just my opinion) the executives at other companies are throwing parties because Sony looks so inept. And so George is talking about cowardice and terrorism and how “the press abdicated its real duty” when discussing the Sony Hack. It feels like George is pulling an Aaron Sorkin here – if George hadn’t been personally affected (his emails were hacked too), I wonder if his position would be much different.
George on whether Sony was legitimately under attack: “A good portion of the press abdicated its real duty. They played the fiddle while Rome burned. There was a real story going on. With just a little bit of work, you could have found out that it wasn’t just probably North Korea; it was North Korea.”
On the first amendment & terrorism: “This was a dumb comedy that was about to come out. With the First Amendment, you’re never protecting Jefferson; it’s usually protecting some guy who’s burning a flag or doing something stupid. This is a silly comedy, but the truth is, what it now says about us is a whole lot. We have a responsibility to stand up against this. That’s not just Sony, but all of us, including my good friends in the press who have the responsibility to be asking themselves: What was important? What was the important story to be covering here? The hacking is terrible because of the damage they did to all those people. Their medical records, that is a horrible thing, their Social Security numbers. Then, to turn around and threaten to blow people up and kill people, and just by that threat alone we change what we do for a living, that’s the actual definition of terrorism.”
On Amy Pascal & Scott Rudin’s racist Obama email: “After the Obama joke, no one was going to get on the side of Amy, and so suddenly, everyone ran for the hills. Look, I can’t make an excuse for that joke, it is what it is, a terrible mistake. Having said that, it was used as a weapon of fear, not only for everyone to disassociate themselves from Amy but also to feel the fear themselves. They know what they themselves have written in their emails, and they’re afraid.
How many people refused to sign his letter: “It was a fairly large number. Having put together telethons where you have to get all the networks on board to do the telethon at the same time, the truth is once you get one or two, then everybody gets on board. It is a natural progression. So here, you get the first couple of people to sign it and … well, nobody wanted to be the first to sign on. Now, this isn’t finger-pointing on that. This is just where we are right now, how scared this industry has been made. Quite honestly, this would happen in any industry. I don’t know what the answer is, but what happened here is part of a much larger deal. A huge deal. And people are still talking about dumb emails. Understand what is going on right now, because the world just changed on your watch, and you weren’t even paying attention.”
Whether the emails in the Sony Hack are legitimately news: “I do know something about the news world. I was sitting on the floors of newsrooms since I was seven years old, and I’ve been around them my whole life. I understand that someone looks at a story with famous people in it and you want to put it out. OK. It’s a drag, and it’s lame. But there’s not much you can do about it. You can’t legislate good taste. The problem is that what happened was, while all of that was going on, there was a huge news story that no one was really tracking. They were just enjoying all the salacious sh*t instead of saying, “Wait a minute, is this really North Korea? And if it is, are we really going to bow to that?”
I understand that George is trying to get people to refocus on what’s important and yes, he makes a legitimate point about how some in the media weren’t focusing on the “real” story, which is that North Korea waged a major attack on Sony (and Sony caved). But…to defend the press a bit, law enforcement didn’t confirm that the hack was truly done by North Korea until a few days ago. And to defend the press, the fact that the co-chairman of Sony and a major Hollywood producer email racist “jokes” to each other IS VERY NEWSWORTHY. The ingrained sexism and racism of so many higher-ups in Sony is very newsworthy. It’s not “lame” and it’s not in bad taste. It really just feels like George is trying to reassert the status quo, which is “don’t look behind the curtain, where all the old white men are making all the rules.”
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Go have several seats George and stop making excuses for assholes.
P.S. “Monuments Men” sucked. I wouldn’t dare show it to my HS history class on a Pro-Ed day because it’s so bad.
LOL. Love how he compares Rome burning to an email hack in Hollywood. Ego big enough for you, George?
Right? I get that it’s just an analogy, but he’s being really dramatic.
In this case, if he wants to paint North Korea as Nero, he’d better hand them a lyre so they can sing. (History nerd: Nero played a lament to the Fall of Troy on his lyre, not fiddle, while the fire spread across 40 city blocks).
If it was a film adaptation of The Orphan Master’s Son or a doco on North Korea, I might feel more incensed. But we’re talking about a tasteless comedy making light of one of the worst human rights situations in the world. Not exactly on par with the burning of Rome.
It isn’t about the email hack, necessarily. The larger implication that satire and parody can be silenced through intimidation is so important.
I think people need to understand the POWER of satire, and how it has been used in the US and how it has impacted our history. It is a right that has been defended by the Supreme Court. When he says “you’re never protecting Jefferson”, he makes a great point. The Supreme Court case was about Hustler, but it solidified the rights for ALL Americans to use the art of satire and parody to make a bigger point.
That would be true if The Interview were satire or parody. It isn’t. By all accounts it’s another lame unfunny stoner “comedy” from Seth Rogen, which features Kim Jong Un getting his head blown off at the end. Hilarious and so subtle.
I wish everyone would shut up about this already. Apparently the JAPANESE Sony honchos made this decision, not giving a rat’s ass about compromising “American freedom!” but about their bottom line. If anyone got hurt watching this idiotic movie (which was extremely unlikely), they’d be liable and WOULD LOSE MONEY. End of story.
You could always show it if you wanted all your students to fall asleep 😉
I don’t think he should have a seat. He is right, this IS about a very serious matter. Satire and parody have been used for hundreds of years, especially in the US, as a way to make bigger statements about those in power. The United States Supreme Court defended satire and parody as a right.
The idea that people could be scared of satire and parody in the future regarding political figures is a VERY important matter. It’s huge.
@Tiffany 🙂
He can have a seat right next to you. Bring Kleenex.
Do you have any valid points to offer, or just snark? 😉
Sony’s HQ is in Japan. To loosely quote Sauromon they (the US Supreme Court) have (little to) no power here. Sony is also a private company. They made the CHOICE to not show it. The movie theaters who are also private companies made the CHOICE to not show it.
Hypothetically (slippery slope yadda yadda but level with me for a minute), if something DID happen–even if it was “minor” like the gassing of the furry convention last week–Sony would be accused of putting lives over entertainment. They didn’t want to go down that road. I don’t blame them or the theaters. We take bomb threats to schools and airports seriously (even if they’re made by irate football players, e.g. LAX vs. Patrick Willis.) so why wouldn’t they take this threat seriously either?
Clooney just sounds like every person that commentates on someone else’s life. “Well if *I* were them, I wouldn’t take that.” No, you don’t know what you’d do. You’d like to think that’s what you’d do and maybe you’re right. But there’s other forces at work that people (and Sony) had/have to consider. Taking the $74 million hit is probably preferable to what COULD have happened with lawsuits and further attacks on its employees.
MonicaQ, I don’t think Sony is infringing on anyone’s rights. I posted this elsewhere, but I think it sums up my stance in regards to the “rights” thing:
” In a way, our rights are being restricted by proxy because even though it isn’t our government restricting speech, it has been restricted all the same due to threats of violence. Ultimately, I think we have become accustomed to capitalism facilitating our rights to speech (even through message boards, facebook, instagram). I do think that this could have a seriously chilling effect on companies taking the risk to support any type of politically related material. I think that is not good for our society.”
Honestly, I don’t blame Sony for pulling the movie or theaters for not wanting to air it. The threats were very serious. It frightens me that hackers have the ability to control what material is seen by citizens of the US.
Even historically, royalty had its jester, whose job often was to relay the foibles of the monarchy through humor. He was a truthteller through humor. If satire and parody are muzzled, we lose our ability to reflect back what is ridiculous about our systems, the world, etc.
Exactly, Bella bella.
Where is Christian Bale when you need him!
By the way this is much bigger than George Clooney and his big mouth. The US government needs to get involved and it sounds like they may seriously be considering putting N Korea BACK on the terror list.
Sony is a Japanese company that, as far as I can find, pays no US taxes. Why should the US government get involved?
Because movie theaters on U.S. soil were threatened with violence of some sort?
Kinda trying to wrap my head around how the racists jokes were a “terrible mistake”. A mistake is making a poor choice, being racist is being a sh-tty person.
Yeah pretty much.
At the end of the day, these cowardly celebrities have no real integrity–they’re all just scared shitless of the big studios.
yes exactly. That kind of thinking doesn’t happen for a moment in time and all other moments you think completely differently. Either you think that way or you don’t. Either you are a racist or you aren’t.
Disappointed in Georgie here …
I’m never disappointed in or by George.. but I see George in a different way.
Right. If you don’t want to live in fear that your emails will expose you for the racist/ misogynist you are or whatever, try not being one. It’s funny how then you don’t write racist / misogynist emails. Just one of life’s little mysteries.
There must be many reason why Goerge in jumping to defend Sony. I never take him really seriously. After all, George is always about Clooney and everything else is secondary. As for hacking I would not jump into pointing fingers at NK.
I don’t see him as defending Sony here.
What I see is someone who:
1. Looks at the hacks as a violation of personal information (SSN, addresses, etc.). Kind of like my position on the “nude photo hacks”, I didn’t see it just being about boobs. It was about a serious invasion of private information that we are all vulnerable to in the digital age, just maybe not in the same ways. Today its Sony’s employees, tomorrow maybe it will be Lockheed Martin’s employees, or Bank of America, etc.
2. Sees this as a battle against satire and parody where they have been defeated. The impact of this on future political satires is chilling.
Just “a terrible mistake?” Racism is not a mistake – it is a targeted attack on a minority, and in this instance a minority that has been brutalized over and again, throughout hundreds of years of US history. This is not a statement that is merely rude – it is aggression. It is part and parcel of systematic defamation, and intimidation, of a group of people who deserve, not worry about race, period. So frustrating that people cannot get over this bull*** Where are their thinking caps?
This North Korea scare, seems to be a clear tactic of bait and switch. The publicity over the emails was too uncomfortable, so why not do fear instead? – so Hollywood of them… President Obama said (on national television networks), that there was no credible threat – but Sony, still, did it’s thing. This was a bad move for national security!!! I believe that it was very irresponsible of Sony to make this kind of decision without using our government’s resources. Bait and switch – bozo’s!
Just because George landed a beautiful, elegant, and accomplished woman, does not mean that those qualities are extended to him by osmosis!. Those come by hard work – not by acting as if! Geez – he sure has his snuffy in the air.
On Wednesday the president also promised that his administration believe the cyberattack to be ‘very serious.’
‘We’re investigating it. We’re taking it seriously. You know, we’ll be vigilant. If we see something that we think is serious and credible, then we’ll alert the public,’ he said in an interview with ABC News.
‘But for now, my recommendation would be that people go to the movies,’ he added.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2879704/White-House-weighs-Sony-hacks-promise-proportional-response-matter-national-security-refuses-implicate-North-Korea.html#ixzz3MMbr3yKd
North Korea has always made ridiculous and vicious threats, but now, Sony is the new national security team: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/19/north-korea-threats_n_6350964.html
This is a movie studio, that is afraid of the examination of their internal emails. Alrighty then. I suppose that film studios are now in charge of our safety, rather than our government. And the hackers have notified Sony that they are safe, unless they create additional problems: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/19/hackers-sony-message-the-interview-_n_6354790.html?1419005087
Good job Sony. Haha. You should have let the government handle this one! So much for thinking…now these hackers believe that they are in control of your studio!
It looks very bad for hackers or terrorists to be lieve that they are in control of the conversation. This is embarrassing for all Americans!
Okay, I get it, G. I don’t like Lil Kim telling me what to watch either. I would not have gone to see this movie, as it looked to be pretty bad. But now I would go on principle (maybe). But come on-the press didn’t fail here-they were saying N.Korea early on. Too late-we all saw behind the curtain & it’s one nasty sight. H’wood is racist, sexist, crazy, childish, bizarre, and out of touch.
“Lil Kim” made be bust up laughing!
Lol! Little Kim! But yes to all of that!
@Kri at first I thought you were discussing the rapper LOL
Well I think it’s a bit hypocritical for him to talk about the first amendment then say the press shouldn’t talk about the stuff in these emails (excluding ssn, phone numbers, and other personal info of course) . I mean it may mostly be gossip fodder but there have been newsworthy reveals from this especially the racist documents about Denzel.
This, exactly! It’s like the First Amendment is okay as long as it’s George Clooney-approved material? I find this hack incredibly newsworthy, though yes, a lot of it has devolved into gossip and in no way should personal information be given out.
A foreign nation hacked into a the emails / servers of Sony? Uh yeah, that’s worth reporting on.
What? I missed the comments about Denzel.
Kim1, a Hollywood producer sent an email to Amy P (I think) in which he claimed that African American actors, even one of Denzel’s caliber, could not open movies in Europe. I believe he pulled this “fact” from out of his a*s.
The press has not (to my knowledge) written about sensitive medical info or SINs or home addresses. This is to their credit. THOSE things aren’t newsworthy. It is the public interest to expose and discuss the racism & sexism of Hollywood gatekeepers & power players.
Sony now has lawsuits against it from the breach. Apparently, this is not the first time Sony has been hacked, and they never addressed security issues, like telling employees not to use the password, “password”. I’m not sure what element of the First Amendment George was referring to; freedom of the press or free speech. But this is not a case of Sony being denied free speech. They could offer this film in various forms outside of theater release. No one, as far as I know, had threatened jail if they released this film in alternative ways.
So high-horsing doesn’t cut it here.
As to whether this is legitimate news, not all of it. But some of it does speak to larger issues about race in this country, so there is some merit to the public’s right to know.
All the celebs tweeting that Sony is weak or whatever.. they can all pool their resources.. Rent a venue.. have screenings of the film. And then accept any financial fallout if some idiot decides to harm someone.
And take their families there too. hmmm yeah..
They could stream release it, release it on DVD, On demand and a million other ways.
Yeah why isn’t it being released on demand? I don’t actually care because I can just put Team America and Pineapple Express on at the same time for a similar effect, but it’s not like they are without options. Oh, unless they just want an insurance write off.
or they can push it via itunes. i read somewhere that Kim Jong Un have Macbooks and iMacs and iPhones even though he disallowed his own countrymen from having those things.
(i wonder how he got it. maybe send some minions out to another country? sad to think that the Great Leader, in a hypothetical situation, can’t just go to the an Apple store to get his in-apps purchases restored or some thing)
let him wake up one day and have The Interview already downloaded on this phone. maybe he’ll like the movie and not try to delete it with a Taepodong.
mimifoO, I could just put on Taylor Swift music, jab myself in the arm a few times with a scissor and get the same effect.
In their defense, I think the streaming may happen later without much of an announcement so if there is a terrorist threat to the streaming sites the hackers will have less time to plan. Also, as was said they may just let the project die completely for insurance purposes.
I am not upset with Sony for canceling the release, as I can’t see that they had a choice as too many major theater chains wouldn’t show it. I would like them to show some courage and work out a deal with an On demand service, but they better have a IT system than Sony’s. I am upset at Sony because of their racist, misogynistic and really old fashioned ideas on films, projects and people in general.
“Yeah why isn’t it being released on demand?”
Because Sony’s network is still insecure and no one wants to risk inviting the corruption into their network by connecting to Sony’s servers. My company is currently operating pen-and-paper only with Sony and a number of other clients closely tied to Sony (some video game companies, for instance) for this reason.
But Sony does own the streaming service Crackle, so they could put it out there, but if they release it in any form they can’t file an insurance claim and recoup their money that way.
I was thinking that if they don’t release it all they could get a better insurance pay out for this? I think it still comes down to the dollar & no one was going to see it so Sony played poker (ie- release it but let theaters decide to show it or not), theaters said THEY wouldn’t show it, it gets scrapped & Sony will get a huge payout from insurance. Better then the pennies they’d make if it went on demand.
@M, that’s what I heard as well. That if they don’t show it anywhere, they can write it off as a “total loss” and get a better payout from insurance. If they release it on demand or on DVD, they can’t claim that. Although I still think it would make a huge amount of money (probably not what they put into it though) if they were to show it – there’s a lot of people that even for curiosity sake would pay to just see it.
This x1000 exactly. Nobody is saying SONY can’t have all the free speech they want. We all have free speech in this country but then you have to be willing to accept the consequences. SONY is Ina bind because really they should be able to show the film knowing nothing untoward will happen but they don’t know that and aren’t willing to take a chance. But by all means Rob Lowe and Steve Carrell and George Clooney, get a copy of the film, show it in a public venue with your family and really stick it to North Korea. I would recommend a lot of security.
@noway, That is still not a defense or reason for arguing that freedom of speech is being denied. No where does the First Amendment infer that freedom of speech=profit.
@Algernon, Sony could enlist the services of a third party to stream the film, that is if they wanted to take a hard stance on their “freedom of speech”.
That’s my point, though. No third party will touch any electronic file transfers from them right now because their network still isn’t secure. They do own Crackle, though, so they could release it there without involving a wary third party. They won’t because they couldn’t then collect on the insurance money for a “total loss”.
Yep, it’s about the money, but mostly fears of what additional information might be released about them. Damage control.
Freedom of Speech isn’t being denied. If that is what Clooney is saying he is crazy. The First amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,…” Unless I missed something no one passed a law or anyone from the US government told them they couldn’t release this movie. Sony is free to do what they want with the property they own, but they have limited good avenues for them as a business which is totally different.
They can release it to the few theatre chains willing to show it but risk being sued by the patrons who may get hurt if some nutcase decided to do something. They could stream it, but obviously their system isn’t very secure and they have a lot of employees and customers personal data issues that will and could arise if it happens again. I know they should have fixed some of these issues, but it sounds like their system was a mess to begin with and I am sure it still isn’t secure. Their best avenue really is to try to fix their IT systems and then decide. While apologizing for their stupid racist misogynistic emails.
Did you hear Paolo Coehlo the author offered Sony 100K on Twitter to let him stream the Interview on his blog? He felt so strongly as he knows Salmon Rushdie that this was a bad precedent he wanted to change it. I would have respected George more if he did something like that.
“No where does the First Amendment infer that freedom of speech=profit.”
I think it is a clash between capitalism and free speech. Satire is so important when it comes to politics. It is often used as a voice of the people speaking truth to power.
The problem is when you are dependent on capitalism to broadcast that message. It is tragic that the hackers efforts are successful in scaring everyone away from airing the film, but at the same time you can’t fault business owners for making the safest choice for their company.
“Freedom of Speech isn’t being denied.”
The Supreme Court ruled that satire and parody are protected forms of speech. I see his point in this respect. This might have serious consequences on future parodies of political leaders.
Tiffany :), I have read nothing to indicate that the US Gov’t interfered with the airing of the film in any form. When people, especially NOT corporations, exercise free speech, it often isn’t free nor cheap. Saying things that are contrary to status quo, or that which speaks against the power elite, puts that person in risk of consequences and retribution, etc. Look at civil rights leaders who were harmed or killed. People can be fired, lose income and so on. This film wasn’t even positioned as some strong statement against North Korea, but maybe it was taken the way. Maybe the hackers weren’t even from North Korea. In the end, Sony fears more damaging leaks than anything else, IMO.
I don’t think that the US government interfered with the film airing (and I haven’t made any claims it did), but another government apparently did. In a way, our rights are being restricted by proxy because even though it isn’t our government restricting speech, it has been restricted all the same due to threats of violence. Ultimately, I think we have become accustomed to capitalism facilitating our rights to speech (even through message boards, facebook, instagram). I do think that this could have a seriously chilling effect on companies taking the risk to support any type of politically related material. I think that is not good for our society.
I am not really concerned about Sony, more about implications on a bigger scale.
The decision was all Sony’s on the release of the film, and Freedom of Speech or the First Amendment to the US Constitution doesn’t exist or hold any validity in North Korea. That is why to some extent people are surprised that North Korea is behind this apparently the internet and mobile isn’t present that much in North Korea- except for the hackers. I think people are misconstruing what Freedom of Speech means. In the US you have the right to say what you want and make what you want and disperse a movie that you want, but you don’t have to just because you created it. Sony which currently owns the movie has decided for financial and maybe PR reasons not to. They obviously didn’t speak to President Obama as he said he wished they had released it and talked to him before, but he understood their predicament. Also, keep in mind Sony is a Japanese company and they may be worried about their many employees in Japan that is much closer to North Korea than the US. I can see people not being happy with Sony, but I feel for them on this account this is hard decision to make with many people to try and please. The thing Clooney got right is this is a kind of terrorism, but hopefully it just delayed the movie. Also, as President Obama said North Korea does look kind of silly being mad at a satirical movie.
Tiffany :). The more chilling issue is the government’s intrusions into civil rights and liberties under the guise of terrorism protection. If corporations were given less voice by eliminating lobbying, corporations wouldn’t have to be the everything of everything.
If the US Gov’t didn’t weaken the net in order to spy on citizenry, we would have less danger of hacks.
If Sony REALLY cared about making a political statement to NK, through this film, then they would find a way to do it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some genius comes up with legislation that harms freedom of the internet for the average person, using this incident as justification.
We have protected ourselves out of our own freedoms.
The fear mongers want it that way.
Kiddo, I totally agree that government intrusion into citizens privacy in the name of security is a horrible thing. I don’t know if I would say it is more chilling than threatening to “9/11” a country because of a movie, though. I think both actions are dangerous and awful for different reasons.
I think the fact that two powerful white executives were making racist jokes about the president is newsworthy. I hope/wish the hackers could be punished, but I don’t think it was wrong of the news media to expose that.
Regarding them going VOD and streaming.. The hackers released another threat that they would continue the attack if the film was shown in any way shape or form.
“They could offer this film in various forms outside of theater release”‘
Video on Demand services are scared to get the movie from Sony, fearing that it would either contain viruses or that they would then be targeted for hacking. Sony needs some kind of facilitator to get the film out there for them, and they are all running away.
In order to claim the film as a loss for insurance, they can’t release it at all.
Someone said Sony has its own On Demand system called Crackle. The insurance info might be right and could be the reason but not knowing what their policy is they might not have insurance that covers this event at all. Knowing insurance companies I can see them arguing this claim. Sony could just be waiting out to see if the FBI gets more info on this and then release the movie someway. I hope so, because now I am really curious about this film. It is hard to say at this point.
George, talk to your wife about what is/isn’t appropriate in a workplace email and why.
Yeah, and also ask her about grammar!
Yeah, that’s what I keep coming back to. These are high-level executives and their email correspondence sounds like the musings of a high-school theater group. In what corporate environment is this kind of thing usually tolerated? Calling fellow employees/contractors “spoiled brats”? Talking about a person’s race and whether that will affect their ability to bring in money for your company? In any NORMAL work environment, HR would be up in arms to discover people acting so unprofessionally.
This really confirms for me the complete insanity that is Hollywood — it’s not a work environment, it’s high school for millionaires. The mind boggles.
My experience has been the larger the potential money making the industry the more juvenile and asinine the top level. Add in the fame and a lot of the people who go for these jobs are basically the social equivalent of middle school. I met Dr. Joyce Brothers once at an interview and someone was complaining about how the crazy people always seem in charge of these corporations, and yes we were talking media, and how does that happen? Her simple answer was they hire each other.
Hmm. He does make a couple good points but I do tend to think his outrage is a bit disingenuous. His willingness to excuse Pascale’s racism is disappointing. And he knew it WAS North Korea before everyone else did? Lol.
Right?
That’s what he’s saying here, that he KNEW it was North Korea.
Uh, really?
Duh you guys. He grew up in a newsroom, his wife is a human rights lawyer and Matt Damon starred in Team America, so yeah, he’s privy to everything.
@mimif – I watched “We Bought a Zoo” last night so I’m pretty sure I could attend a peace summit and like totes fix everything.
I’m not a civil rights attorney, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express, last night.
Lol. I think we need to get Chris Hemsworth in here to shed some light on the situation — I read yesterday that to immerse himself in the role of a hacker, he took typing lessons. For 10 whole weeks!
Shut up George.
Did Hollywood have an election and appoint George to speak for them. I guess I missed it.
All this over a movie. I am conflicted on all of this. If this had been about an American President would we feel differently. I wonder.
but the thing is if something terrible had happened would the people screaming Free Speech help to pay the legal cost. Besides Freedom of Speech doesn’t mean you have to approve of the speech. I don’t know is Sony did the right thing. I’m sure their legal team weighed the options. The Government was not going to pay the public if some nut actually did something. And what would people/celebrities be saying then. What would they be tweeting and giving interviews about then.
Actually, there was a movie released about assassinating a US president–George W. Bush–which drew a lot of protests from conservatives, but was released anyway. I don’t know which company released it, but wouldn’t be funny if it were Sony? I guess it’s easy to stand up for freedom of speech when the people your speech offends don’t try to harm you or your business for it. In any event, it all turned out to be no big deal.
Knowing what’s going on behind the curtain won’t really change anything. They’ll sack a few sacrificial lambs and it’ll be business as usual. We’re not even learning anything we didn’t already know.
It is a little odd that news outlets are working with them in a way, although I understand why, and the focus isn’t on the precedent this may set. Today a crappy comedy, tomorrow serious films, books and articles.
I do feel bad for the thousands of employees and their families who had all their personal information stolen. That will no doubt be sold.
I think he is just trying to deflect from the fact that he comes off looking like needy, whiney baby who needs a hug from his momma and his binkey. He wants to be seen as the take charge guy with foresight, please GC go back to doing what you do best. Squiring around contractually obligated cocktail waitresses around award season. My bad contractually obligated lawyers…
Look at George coming to mommy’s (Sony’s) defense, aww, how sweet.
Oh please GC is just trying to save face after looking like a wimp that needs his hand held because he just can’t deal with his movie not getting good press and possibly bombing. Poor little Gerogy Porgy is so used to having people treat him as if he invented sunshine and couldn’t handle the heat. Now,he’s trying to come off as the great protector of all that is true and just. Hey George you aren’t Batman.
I think that the Sony Pictures hack is horrible, especially because so many people had SS/personal ID information put out there, but calling it “the most chilling and devastating of any cyber attack in the history of our country” makes me want to roll my eyes. What about the cyber attacks on Target and Home Depot where millions of consumers had their credit card and personal information stolen?
Yeah. Frankly I find the NSA’s activity more chilling and devastating than a bunch of elitist privileged a-holes making terrible mistakes.
laroodoO and mimifoO. Completely agree.
The Target and Home Depot attacks were more personally devastating for more people, but it was only a small portion of the information Target and Home Depot have on their customers and for a defined period of time. The interesting part of this hacking is the extent of the theft. It seems to be everything. Just as with Target and Home Depot who did change a lot of their procedures and IT processes we have to look at what we learn from this Sony attack.
I think why it is so chilling is that it could kill satire. Satire and parody have played such a HUGE role in the history of politics, especially in the US. In fact, the Supreme Court deemed them to be protected speech.
I think he worries about this event discouraging people from making political commentary through satire and parody in the future. It is an important issue, IMO.
The moral of this story . . . don’t write anything in an email that would embarrass you or someone else if it becomes public. No one wants to embarrass themselves and not one wants to embarrass the asshat that two years later is now their boss. Computer Use 101.
George doesn’t want anybody to look behind his curtain.
awesome.
Welp, that’s his first failed legislation and I’m quite disappointed how dismissive he is of the racist email.
Ugh!!! Does he always have to pull the I know journalism because my father was a newsman crap. Well my father was a neurosurgeon, but I don’t think anyone wants me as their brain surgeon. In addition, and this could be a big problem with George’s movies of late, new flash TIMES HAVE CHANGED and so have newsrooms. He can be so condescending.
As a person who has worked in newsrooms recently, the real story is not that North Korea did this, as I think that was widely speculated and reported early on, although I believe they did it with a little help from an inside Sony person, we will find that out later maybe. The real story that is being covered and has been covered is that large corporations IT systems are this vulnerable to such an overall attack. A lot of corporations have had leaks of partial information, but not this, as this looks like their entire corporate servers you have emails, personnel history, creative scripts and the list is endless.
And here I thought he didn’t use that overused comment about his dad being a newsman. I guess I just wasn’t reading careful enough. Does he seriously think that because his dad was a journalist that this means his ideas on the media are more official/ more worthy of listening to.
He actually said a different take but same meaning, “I have been in newsrooms since I was a kid”, but not working in them. I believe he thinks being there gives him more credentials. That is just out of touch.
Yes, I think he does.
He is a buffoon.
I wish George would be quiet. Listen, it is a big deal when hackers do something like this. And he has a valid point. However, the content of the emails was newsworthy, especially because it revealed some very interesting stuff – especially the stuff about Denzel Washington, which to me said a lot about how people of color still get treated in Hollywood. That’s legit news. The news media isn’t a legal organization – it doesn’t make decisions based upon whether the news was obtained legally. Anything newsworthy is deemed reportable. The press doesn’t have the duty to make determinations about the legality of the news.
I am amazed that people would commit such sentiments to emails (which, despite what you might believe, really are permanent). That was my big take-away from this whole mess.
Oh, and that James Franco caused all this. Seth Rogan was involved too, but let’s just blame this one on Franco.
George and the Sony Studios, just negotiated with the North Korean government! Isn’t this against the law!?! (just because he married an international lawyer does not mean it’s okay). We hire and vote for those who keep us safe. What the wha?!? Is Sony it’s own “state” in the US; to be able to negotiate with a foreign power?
The movie wasn’t set to open until December 25, no one was imminent danger (if there ever was any). Why didn’t Sony take this situation to the State department, before sounding an alarm? I would feel so much safer in letting the professionals handle this. Not Sony.
This fiasco was never necessary. It does however, send a bad picture. Shame on Sony.
Everyone should know that hackers exist and are named, what they choose. This is for the big guys. Not Sony theater.
Where would we all be without King George to get us through all of our nation’s darkest hours?
Thank you so much Mr. Clooney. I haven’t been able to sleep because I was worried that you almost cried because nobody liked your widdle movie. Also thank you for reminding us all that racism is just a mistake.
Most chilling and devastating of any cyber attack in the history of our country indeed.
To further calm our fears, please renew your vows post haste on the cover of People so we can rejoice in knowing that true love is alive. At least we will have something pure to hold on to. Sans cockatoos and doorway stumps of course. That’s so 2014.
Yes, this is a watershed moment where we can all embrace patriotism and the rights of studios to can stinker movies. I’m going to go run outside right now and hang a flag that says THE SONY.
*a single tear of pride rolls down my cheek*
I can almost hear faint echoes of “Taps” wafting from my blu ray player.
Cackling like a despot over here.
Gotta keep those dollars coming into the entertainment industry. Paying for wives and girlfriends doesn’t come cheap, you know.
I like George but he’s always thought himself just a tad more intelligent than he actually is.
In other words, “Hey stop focusing on the racism and sexism! Think of the victims! The poor poor white men who are now dealing with this horrific terrorist threat!”
Blah. Blah. Whine. Whine. Don’t look behind the curtain folks at all the asses on display.
He can be so obnoxious sometimes. This is the greatest cyber terrorist attack ev-ah in his mind because it affects him personally. The press played the fiddle while Rome burned… are you kidding me??? Go smell your own farts, George.
He’s certainly entitled to an opinion on the topic, whatever that may be, but to then ask everyone to sign a pledge is ridiculous. He’s a single entity, he doesn’t have hundreds or thousands of employees to think about, or a legal team trying to figure out what to do next, or shareholders to answer to. Personally I wish Sony hadn’t caved, but I also understand why they did. Ultimately it’s their choice, and the choice of any other company facing a serious breach like this, so until George is the owner, CEO, or President of such a company, he really doesn’t need to be telling anyone else what they should or shouldn’t be doing.
He’s right that everyone in the media was too busy discussing the dishy gossip and racist remarks, but it’s human nature that people are going to gravitate towards that, and journalism has gone the way of getting clicks and following it’s audience instead of guiding them. If George is upset about this, and rightly so, why doesn’t he start a news company that does better?
We have a new type of homeland security threat…or rather, a new system that rates our movies. Take that, Sony! – they are now in control of your business – what a bad bargain for salacious email. Why didn’t they go to the State department as to how to handle this situation, as this is a national security issue? We get that they are a private company, but this was a issue that affects everyone and as stands, so short sighted. What a terrible way to obscure and suppress!
Why was he silent until yesterday? This story broke over a week ago.At least Sorkin and Apatow and others express their outrage when it first broke.Even Brad ,Tyler Perry,Oprah etc addressed it on RC.Clooney could have done an interview last week but he chose to remain silent.He could have done article in USA Today BEFORE the movie was pulled,challenging others to show their support since he is the President of Hollywood.
Just the fact that this hack happened is newsworthy. While people can debate whether or not catty emails about this or that actress are “appropriate news”, the simple fact of the attack is major news, just as it is when a huge retail chain has customer data hacked. And much of the information exposed by this hack is also newsworthy. The wage gap salary info, Project Goliath, the email from a Sony producer saying not to hire a prominent black actor because “the rest of the world is racist”, all of that is news. I feel like Clooney and Sorkin and everyone yelling about ethics and moral obligation just want us to ignore everything, to sweep all the bad behavior exposed back under the rug, but we can’t and shouldn’t do that. Sony needs to be held accountable for some of this stuff. Whether or not someone needs to apologize to someone else for saying soemthign bitchy about them is a personal matter between those people, but Amy Pascal revealed a prejudiced streak that directly effects the kinds of movies she’ll make and the people she’ll hire for them. The wage gap must be addressed directly. The repeated failures on Sony’s part to go to greater lengths to secure their employees personal data must be held accountable. There is so much to this that is real, actual news and they want us all to look away because oopsie, we weren’t ever supposed to see it in the first place. That’s not a good enough reason, sorry, George.
This.
Of course! (facepalm).
It’s the PRESS’s JOB to protect movie stars and executives!
The irresponsibility was in publishing stolen property. Hackers can leak, it doesn’t mean that the real media ought to participate in disseminating stolen information. This is not the Pentagon Papers; it’s Hollywood nonsense.
There is an element of whistle blowing at least to the extent of how there are disparate pay scales according to gender and also the apparent racial discrimination. As to the medical records and SSI #s, none of that was re-published. The public interest angle on other gossipy minutia is questionable, but you have Hollywood using the same avenues and methods of PR releases to promote: through Gossip sites.
Ugh, I don’t like it when George goes into preachy mode. It’s particularly irritating that he’s defending Pascal. I’m sure some people are avoiding her because they are afraid, but I would hope at least some people are doing so because they’re disgusted with her behavior.
So I must be old because I agree with George. You never ever let a bully win. With that said, I would never have shown a bit of interest in this movie but thanks to a bunch of Cyber bullies I now will go to see it or rent or whatever I have to do to see it. North Korea’s starving bullies do not get to tell me what I can see or not see based on their addled brain dictator. This is just Hollywood big shots trying to cover their own butts and to them I say if you would have spent a little less money on your big shots and more on computer security you would not be in this mess. Let the secrets be spilled now so that Sony can do the right thing and fire all of their executives and start anew. And for god’s sake people get the top of the line computer people (much like my underpaid self!) to protect your secrets.
Evidently he didn’t get the message from his buds at Sony..he sez stand with Sony ..at the same time they’re pulling the film. There’s hypocrisy in his continued devotion to Pascal..just months ago he nearly came to blows with some casino owner who made a comment..not racist..about the prez…but that guy wasn’t funding his films. This is NOT a freedom of speech issue, the film can be distributed in several ways..don’t Sony tv shows get streamed quickly on Amazon? The newsman stuff riles me..I remember seeing his dad doing talk shows and announcing acts at state fairs..stop it..
Who ever responsible for the hacking should have just let the movie be released. The movie looked so idiotic it would have disappeared within a month.
Sony was threatened before the whole hacking scandal. The PR department played into it until the hacking and bomb threats. That’s when it all back fired.
As for the film I have not one f$!k to give. For all I care they can send it to North Korea they can watch that crapfest. That will teach them a lesson.
I really really wish some of the p*dofilia and rape would come up. I so want these A*holes to come out of the wood work so we can all see everyones true colors and everyone in Hollywood that said they were abused, raped, seduced as kids or even adults would come to light so there could be an ATTEMPT to heal. They are all scum. Sorry
Bingo. I personally believe that is why SONY is backing down. They KNOW that they have been covering up for criminal acts for decades…and they are scared to death. They are protecting their own butts. Bill Cosby is probably only the tip of the iceberg….I really agree with you and believe this. *sad*
Actually he is right. First we turn a blind eye because this is hacking to reveal things that we all find juicy – but the reality is that they released sensitive info about people. And to say they deserved to be hacked because their passwords were weak is a little like saying a woman deserves it because skimpy clothing. Now it might have been extremely foolish of them as a major company to not be realistic about the vulnerability in today’s world – however the onus is on us who have gobbled up the displayed tidbits and even more so those who have made money off of it to accept the fact that we have fed off of something a little unsavory – same as the hacked phone pics. Isn’t someones private communications just as intimate and revealing as tacking a picture of someone jacking off on your face to send to your boyfriend half way around the world?
Deserving to be hacked is different than being negligent about security after being hacked. Sony as a large corporate entity, suffered a prior attack, but apparently remained lax in protection. The women who wore skimpy outfits in this circumstance were the employees whose SSI#s and medical records were not secured. Sony was the police officer who left the door open for perps.
I don’t think that this hack was ‘ethical’, but neither are the backdoors the government put in place to make it easier for them AND hackers to get in. NOTHING is private. The NSA can get any information it wants, including ventures in international corporate espionage. Without addressing this first, hacks will continue unabated.
What about the nude hacks? Large nude hacking had been done previous to the current one. With famous people. Shouldn’t they have learned their lesson and upped their security?
Btw, I’m not saying sony is right about not upgrading their security. Just saying that people’s attitudes seem to be completely different when it’s almost the exact same situation. It’s simply hacking and publishing things that don’t belong to you.
I’ve answered this below. It doesn’t serve in the public interest to disseminate naked pictures of people.
You misunderstood about the security part. Sony is holding private data on unsecured systems even after being hacked multiple times. At least they could have removed medical info from the network and left that as stand alone. The employees had no choice where this data was collected and how it was shared.
I don’t doubt for one second that Sony is negligent in their security practices. It’s still a criminal offense to hack those systems, though. The same way it’s criminal for people to hack nudes from a cloud. Or someone to come into my house and steal my stuff because I left the window unlocked. This is the exact same thing people were arguing with the nude hacks. It doesn’t make it right simply because you think it is of public interest.
Well put. People seem to have no issue with reading all the salacious emails (and I’m one of those), but not with the fact that it was a criminal act and it certainly wasn’t a “whistleblowing” hack. If that were true, there wouldn’t have been medical info released. This was simply a hack and data dump.
Where are all the, “this is a criminal offense and we shouldn’t be looking at these things” people? *cough-nude hacks-cough*.
I really think (and hope) this is the year that makes people seriously question the safety of all of our electronic communication. I know it scare the piss out of me.
The motivation behind the hack and the reason for reporting certain elements are two different things. Clearly the hackers made a dump of all data collected. The pieces written about, from a free-press stand point on ‘of interest to the public’, do include some elements that could be whistle blowing-like data, such as pay and racial discrimination. The media releasing photos of naked celebs is on an entirely different scale, the public has no legitimate interest in the sexual practices of the individuals without consent. Reporting on reasons why black people aren’t employed by Hollywood, or why women aren’t paid the same for equal roles or billing does offer legitimate information to the public in the context of these issues at large.
The correspondence about AJ and George’s sorrowful failure really don’t apply to benefit the public with knowledge.
Ah, but obviously the public does have interest in nude pics. Legitimate or no. Either way, in both cases, it was private property that was hacked, and therefore not really legitimate at all.
You can’t have it both ways. You either claim that it’s all personal property, and anyone who hacks is a criminal…or it’s whistleblowing and “of public interest”. Except that every single person is going to have a different opinion about what constitutes public interest.
Sadly, The acting profession is and always has been wrought with sexism, racism et al. It’s the one profession that can get away with (and I’m not saying it’s right) being discriminatory in their hiring practices. Most people simply will not hire a black man to fill the role of a white woman character. I’m giving an extreme example, but you get my drift. I’m not saying it’s right. But it is a reflection of our society. If society starts to change, and especially in what it will support at the office, then Hollywood will follow suit.
**sighs**, it’s illegal in both cases. My point was about the press reporting on what was released. It doesn’t mean that the hackers get a pass in either case. But the press does have some obligation to report what is news worthy and to decide on how to present that info to the public. In the hot button issues of politics and policy, we can see how, in real life, women are not being paid the same and black people are being dismissed as non-profitable individuals, even though the numbers do not play out; ie. Denzel. There is an interest at stake to report on those type of items because some politicians proffer that it doesn’t even exist.
Other than for lascivious purposes, republishing nudes offers no benefit to the culture in the larger scheme of policy /politics.
If the president states that the movie industry is acting as ambassadors or diplomats through entertainment in foreign lands, when a. two execs make racist jokes and b. they represent the worst of our culture in hiring practices and pay, then that is a strong argument to report on these un-official diplomats or disseminaters of propaganda, if you will.
I’m getting all your points kiddo. I don’t even disagree. But you can see though, how the media could easily manipulate that information. Perhaps the media left out some pertinent emails. Say someone said in a later email thAt what they said was bad and they didn’t really mean to come across as racially insensitive? (I’m not saying that’s the case. I really do think they’re just racist) but who’s to say that ALL the emails didn’t make it in what was reported? The media could have skewed this however they wanted, and unless you’re the hacker, you don’t truly know.
I’m not defending anyone at sony. I just think that this is a very slippery slope issue, and the media isn’t always truthful and always has a bias. So couple those things with this being private property obtained from a criminal act, and I’m not comfortable saying that, well, certain information is my right to know.
I also fail to see how someone calling Angelia Jolie a brat or commenting on the size of Michael Fassbender’s junk is “of public concern”. The media report on what *they* think is newsworthy.
I know what you are saying as well. Some of the shit about Angelina and others had no place in public, but I read it anyway. All the same, I am grateful for Wikileaks and Edward Snowden in what they brought forth, even though the methodology was technically criminal. Too much info about private citizens is not protected, while the powerful have an iron curtain blocking misdeeds. There is too much grey area for me to take a hard side. I still think George’s speech was largely disingenuous or spin at best, especially the finger wagging at ALL journalists.
**sighs**, The media isn’t one giant blob. What gossip sites report and what a journalistic entity report are different animals, although they do intersect. A blanket statement that none of this should have been reported because the original access was illegal, and the closing of the film as an assault on free speech, which doesn’t apply here, was what I took issue with.
Clooney married a woman defending Assange Wiki leaks founder who is a professional hacker.
#irony
Truth wins the prize for best post!
Wow, he’s more long-winded and dull than a terms-of-service agreement.
Okay you win!!! I love this comment.
I read an article on Pajiba yesterday that suggests that the cancellation of the film is more about the safety of Japan than American movie theatres.
http://www.pajiba.com/trade_news/the-geopolitics-of-sonys-decision-making-its-not-american-theaters-that-sony-is-worried-about.php
To summarise, North Korea is constantly making threats to blow up Tokyo. Since Sony is actually a Japanese company and Japan has already suffered two atomic bomb attacks in the last 70 years, Sony decided to scrap the film instead of further provoking North Korea.
If this article is correct about Sony’s motives for scrapping The Interview all together, can anyone really blame them? But would anyone in Hollywood ever accept that Hollywood was not the center of Sony’s concerns?
Scraping movies for foreign governments only opens to the door to further demands. They could theoretically do this all over America. It would then no longer be the land of the free.
The controversy as to whether or not Sony should have pulled the plug on the film, is rendered useless. It is not their jobs to protect movie goers, until Dec. 25. Sony had plenty of time to consult with the US government, before capitulating. It surprises me that there are those who would rather Sony protect our country, than our government and the FBI, CIA, the State Department and our President. I bet they know a lot more about North Korea and terrorism and those threats, than any theater executive.
I had to laugh that George was out telling Sony how to deal with terrorist threats.. Is George with the State department? Perhaps he puts his faith in that international lawyer he is married to: should she know better than President Obama??? All of these folks were fools!
I agree with what the article stated about GC trying to point out a big picture… That’s true… But… I just can’t help that every time I see him or hear him talk or read about him… All I think about is Team America…
Bravo George! He is 100% right. The media absolutely failed the public on this terrible story. I have been seriously depressed over this all week. I read comments yesterday–YESTERDAY–all over the web by people still claiming that Sony is just pulling a publicity stunt to garner interest in their movie!?!?! I don’t know how people can be so stupid. This is an act of terror, and we all just lost a big hunk of freedom, as most corporations (and definitely all in Hollywood) are now frantically erasing their email histories, spending a fortune on new security systems, changing policies, enforcing strict new rules. Its a new dark world. I remarked a few days ago that I had studio it men in my house all day doing stuff to protect our personal home computers. I feel like we’re living in the Soviet Union or something. If this hasn’t affected you yet, don’t worry…it will. Our fun days of internet freedom are over.
And no, none of the other studios are partying. (read that on Cumberbatch post) They are terrified that they will be next. All of the industry families I know have forgotten the holidays and are busy trying to protect their identities, their bank accounts, and their families safety. North Korea won this round. Its insane to think they will stop at what they’ve done to Sony, or that others that hate this country will not soon join in. Thank you George, for always having the courage to speak out and cut through the bullshit. I hope our government will show equal courage, but I fear that we will be living under draconian protocols from now on no matter what.
He hasn’t cut though any bullshit. He has very self-servingly and opportunistly and deliberately tried to position himself as the voice of moral reason, the position that he loves most and, in the light of the reality of him, least deserves to occupy.
I could not disagree more with your statement. He is bravely pointing out the bullsh-t of the press focusing on these stupid emails and printing employees social security numbers & other personal info, instead of rightfully pointing out that this situation now means that ANY of US could now be blackmailed by hackers. It took guts to do this. You know why you don’t see many other famous people speakiing out? Because they AFRAID. No one wants their internet usage made public. I don’t, and I’m a soccer mom (or minivan mom). Do you want your email history blabbed to the world? How about weird shit your boyfriend or relatives looked up on your computer? We all value our privacy. And where does it end? The hackers have already stolen celebrities pictures and the fool media has rudely jumped all over it, like sharks to chum. So maybe next they’ll start recording the phone conversations we have on our iphones. This is a new scary world now. A world of blackmail. The media could stop it in its tracks by refusing to print any of it. They could also have pointed out what is actually going on in the entertainment and corporate world, and made it clear to the smug dumbasses proudly posting their “this is just a lame publicity stunt” bullshit, that this is indeed terrorism, and a matter of concern to everyone.
@Guesto, I completely agree with you. This has nothing to do with righteous indignation but everything to do with George’s ego. Pure and simple.
@Jane16 and @Tiffany:), you two have sure earned your money today. Keep up the good work. Your Christmas bonuses ought to be massive.
Please, sasha. Because you disagree with me, I must be paid? That’s an incredibly weak counter argument.
I am not a big fan of Clooney, I just see the serious consequences of speech being stifled because of political pressure. If no one got to see this movie because it sucked, I would not care.
@Tiffany, I’m 100% with you on freedom of expression and the fallout from bowing to pressure. But I absolutely balk at the idea of Clooney getting the credit in this instance. As per my earlier post, this is such hypocritical self-serving grandstanding on his part.
Oh, I give George no “credit”, I just agree that this is a big deal. I haven’t heard many folks pointing out the bigger possible consequences on speech, and he touches on it here…in addition to other points he is making, that I don’t completely agree with.
I don’t agree with him that Sony should have aired the movie, and I don’t agree with his dismissal of the racist comments.
@jane16 your facts are incorrect. The press has not released anyone’s social security numbers or personal medical information. It was all dumped on a site and then went through by various legitimate press and some internet sources. The press and even some gossip blogs reported that it was suspected that North Korea was behind the hacking almost immediately. Until the FBI and the President confirmed it today what else was to report about that piece? I do remember several reports that North Korea denied it too. I don’t really agree the press abdicated its duties they reported it, but it was similar to all the other hackings. Did George really think that newsrooms that have lost over half their staff over the last decades or even some have closed could find out more definitively than the FBI who did the hacking more than we think it is North Korea. No one is sure who did the Target and Home Depot ones and that was year ago. Cyber hacking is hard to find the culprits.
Now where it gets a bit dicey and I sort of agree with George is the press did start to report a lot about the emails that garnered attention about the women/men pay gap, racism and misogynistic nature of Hollywood along with gossip. Now these were originally brought to life by gawker and sites like that – who I wouldn’t consider press and they went viral and then the media or press reported it, because it is interesting and does have value in how an American industry is run. If someone from Sony internally released this it would be whistle blowing, and very similar to Julian Assange- Wikileaks and Mrs. Clooney’s client. As of yet we are not sure there wasn’t someone internal helping either as the FBI hasn’t been that forthcoming yet. The negative side to that is it was illegally attained and a lot of gossip involved too. This is the new problem with media today reporting base on viral, but welcome to the new world.
@noway, yes, you are correct that I misspoke about our press printing the employees ssn#s and other stuff. I meant to write about the horror of that, and then the press being all over the infamous emails between Rudin & Pascal. Half of the people on my street, as well as friends, family, and hubbie work at one studio or another, and I have been surrounded by gloom, anger, and fear. This has really been a horrible month and I am truly depressed, and afraid to think of the consequences of future cyber attacks. Thank you for correcting my mistake.
It seems like more and more often I’m reading about hackers going after this group or that company or that government agency. This move by North Korea is already having a chilling effect. I take hacking very seriously. I live near DC. Make no mistake. We have been in a cyber war already and we keep losing…to China, Russia, and now North Korea. Hate Clooney if you must, but he makes some very serious points, because, as an operative in the creative sphere, he recognizes that what North Korea has done, others will also do and it will change what we get to see. Just wait till China decides they don’t like something or want something done to their advantage.
During the Winter Olympics in Sochi, they showed how easy and how fast cell phones get hacked. It was alarming.
This sort of thing will continue until everyone takes cyber security seriously.
Dear George.
The news media focused on the content of the emails because it was a treasure trove of information. We learned that even the most educated, influential and wealthy people can hide racist views. We learned that not even the most powerful man on the planet is safe from racism. We learned that gender pay inequality exists even in the rarefied world of Hollywood starlets and we learned that even one of the most influential women in your buisness could be subject to misogynistic views. So while it’s true that the media needs to focus its lens on North Korea and the fact that its government is scary mostly to its own people and that those people live in terror and need help…it is also true that Hollywood has a lot of work to do. It is not the bastion of left leaning views but rather a perfect match for Fox News.
I wonder if you would like your treasure trove of emails and other personal items broadcast to the world. No one needs to know what Scott Rudin is saying to Amy Pascal. You talk as though two citizens private conversations were an important news item.
Have you really just learned from these emails that wealthy people can have racist views. Did you really think that Obama is “safe from racism” because he is president? Have you never heard the people on Fox News? Or Rush Limbaugh? You didn’t know that women make less than men? I have known that my entire life. How could you not have known that? You didn’t know that women, even women with hugely important jobs are subject to misogyny? You can’t be serious. Scott Rudin is gay, and Amy is a woman, so they both undoubtedly have had to deal with a lot of bias and misogyny, and I don’t believe either of them are really racist either. Furthermore, Hollywood isn’t anything like Fox News…with the exception that they both are in the entertainment business.
The problem with this assertion is these are business emails is not personal. I have to be honest as someone who has worked in media for many years, I am dumbfounded by the level of non-professionalism in a lot of these business emails. Also generally I suspected it, to see in writing how dismissive and back-stabbing some producers and studio heads are of other talents creative ideas was news and sad. The pay gap, although known, seeing it at such a high level is news. As it was reported with the head of GM when she left. I can understand when this became more common on the internet why it was reported full blown. Plus it was interesting. Now as far as some racist comments by Rudin and Pascal. Not sure that it makes them racist, as I don’t believe one set of emails make you anything, but the comments are racist.
Now I hate to burst your bubble about Fox News, but a lot of the people who work there including higher ups are not all conservative nut wings and a lot are from the liberal media and hollywood. Generally speaking especially as far as news is now people will take any job they can get, and ideology doesn’t always matter. Fox News is under the same umbrella as Fox Entertainment and Network a lot of the executives switch from place to place. Not that I am a fan, but it shows a certain point of view and has a right to be heard.
noway, I didn’t read the emails beyond the first couple of posts, because for one thing I don’t have time, but also, didn’t think it was that interesting. However, from what little I saw, it looked like they were all discussing movies, which is Sony’s business, and they were strictly from one person to another, which makes them personal. Would a company want their paper business letters made public? I doubt it! To me, emails have always seemed more casual than a formal business letter. In any event, I think that most people would hate to have their emails, which they send to a specific person, made public. After all noway, its not like we post our emails on a public website!
Regarding Fox News, my response to Ld was in regards to her comment “We learned that not even the most powerful man in the world is immune to racism.” (She apparently learned that from Amy’s email) I am a regular Stewart/Colbert watcher and a news reader, and I find the incessant harping on Obama by the main Fox channel & people like Rush Limbaugh to be racist. And sexist. And a lot of other bad things. Don’t worry about “bursting my bubble,” I can take it.
These foreign hacker armies could also hit all of us by hacking our power grids, you know. They have a much longer and alarming reach than anyone is willing to think about.
Yes, its terrifying to think of the number of things that can be done.
Jane 16 I didn’t read a lot of the emails content either, but I did read a few from Pascal/Rudin and then Jolie’s who sounded extremely professional in her bid to make Cleopatra in her way. She was passionate and made a good case via email for her creative vision, and I am not really a fan of hers but I appreciated a woman who fights for what she believed in effectively. Rudin dismissed her and Pascal a lot too and sounded juvenile and like he is a bully.
Now I will bet highly that Sony’s employee manual states something about business email being the property of Sony and most likely can be monitored. I know NBC, ABC, and Disney states that as I have had to sign those employees contracts in my life. This means it is not personal, and you are acting as conduit of that business. This does not mean that the email should be hacked and made public, but it does mean that even though it is one person to another, it can be monitored by other corporate people at the business and most definitely not personal. A business letter is the same it can be monitored and you can be fired if your superior finds your tone unbecoming to their business. That being said I can see how it is newsworthy that these high level executives sound that way and aren’t fired, because Betty assistant would be. I hope this just makes people try to be a bit more careful in their communications as their will always be a hacker out there somewhere,
noway you are correct, these are business emails. It is called an Acceptable Use Policy and most businesses have them. If they provide you an email address or you are using a piece of hardware connected to their email exchange servers- the emails belong to the business. They are not personal emails. You are also expected to maintain professionalism within your emails and are held responsible for the content. Lawyers will inform you not to put anything in an email that you don’t want read aloud in a courtroom, many have learned this lesson the hard way.
This is a man who has been living well and truly beyond his rightful income of attention and applause for over a decade. I really hope this will be the nail in his self-righteous, self-serving, hugely egotistical coffin.
The thing that most dismays in this instance is the self-serving hypocrisy, He asks us to put aside Amy Pascal’s Beavis&Butthead-level racist sneering at the expense of his ‘good buddy’, BO, because she soothed his furrowed, sleepless brow over his disasterous ‘Monuments Men’ and made it all better, but ranted and raved and borderline got into fistycuffs with a man who called BO an a-hole. The latter was an opinion, and while we don’t need to agree with it, or like the individual concerned, we’re all nevertheless entitled to an opinion, but the former – that email conversation – that was a dark and knowing thing, and something that can’t be dismissed as either humour or letting off steam.
Not matter how you slice it, that was a statement of fact about the nature of Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin. and how they see BO. And that’s what Clooney is deflecting from and asking us to move on from.
No, he knows that what happened to Amy could well happen to him, and everyone else he knows.
Perfectly said, @Guesto!
Like Franco’s character in “The Interview” says, WhaaaaAAAAAAT?
Well if it wasn’t for the hack we wouldn’t have known we were manipulated to see your awful movie!
Who cares about what GEORGE thinks, I think he lives in a bubble. I want to know what Amal, the brilliant legal mind thinks.
George is just doing what he always does: protecting his brand/image. We’ve actually learned a lot from these mails: racism, and inequity is alive and well in Hollywood, where a majority of players support the Democratic Party/Obama. Not that we didn’t suspect it, but basically they all just play their game in rather childish ways, yet in the end, support each other against the public. Clooney is probably scared- but not about North Korea, where he wants us to focus on now. He doesn’t like us, the peasants, to look behind the curtain of this shifty industry through which he became a multi millionaire.
This is how I see it. Clooney was embarrassed by the emails between him and Sony executives. It showed his anxiety over that “The Monuments Men” bombed at the box office. He wrote “I fear I’ve let you all down. Not my intention. I apologize. I’ve just lost touch … Who knew? Sorry. I won’t do it again.” He sounds like “I am sorry mommy, I will never do it again.” He is just protecting himself and his reputation. He really does not look like the Chairman of the Board now.
Looks like our President agrees with George. Obama said this afternoon that Sony should not have pulled The Interview, and he wished they had talked to him first. The FBI insists that NK is behind the hacking.
A lot of people agree with our President and Clooney. This was an act of terrorism.
Wow. The PR campaign for this movie is an epic fail. What was Sony mgmt thinking?
FYI to Sony and Hollywood… the Pentagon,major banks and retailers in the U.S. and computer software giants like Microsoft have all been hacked. These folks who live in the ‘land of pretend’ can’t cope and here comes George to the rescue. Remember, he is the great humanitarian. Maybe George can ask Amal, if she isn’t doing photo ops, or shopping for those Godawful clothes she wears, to file a lawsuit against Kin Jong-Un. That’ll show’em whose boss!
Ya know what, George? I used to really admire you. You made some terrific films and you seemed to be socially aware, what with the Darfur thing and all. But since you got with Amal, you have turned into a famewhore. Never thought I’d say that about you, George. You seemed to be disinterested in constantly being in the public eye, but times have changed, haven’t they. This level of overexposure is supremely unattractive. You’re losing credibility with people like me. I’m tired of seeing photos of you and your tan and your anorexic wife. And I’m no longer interested in your films or in what you have to say. Tell me true, is this a marriage of convenience, a symbiotic-type relationship where you gain some political legitimacy being married to an international lawyer and she gets to go to A-list parties and glam it up? Are you gonna run for Governor of California? Well, for a start.
Well said Diane:
Over time,the rationale for this contract marriage has become clear: Amal with her educational/professional background provides an intellectual legitimacy for George and George gives her financial security. In feudal times, they were more honest about marriage between aristocratic families to solidify lands/monies; it was an accepted thing. But this ‘thing’ with Amal & George feels like something a used car salesman would do…Hey George, we’re not buying it!
Amal doesn’t need financial security — her family is very rich. I think they’re just having a great time together, working or whatever it may be.
What on earth has that got to do with a hacking?
You have to read thru previous posts as the conversation is cummulative.
I’m extremely disturbed by Sony’s essentially caving in to the demands of cyber bullies because I believe its doing so has set a dangerous precedent for the easy amelioration of First Amendment rights and for legitimizing illegal actions via fear-based responses.
Having said that, though, I agree with Cody that the Cloons is clambering atop his soap box once again merely for the purpose of directing attention away from his babyish whinging about that clunker of a movie Monuments Men. The reviews were bad because it sucked, but Mama Amy was there to assure him that his dumb vanity project would morph into a hit. He owes her and he owes the system that breeds these crappy movies and moronic executives.
At the end of the day, Clooney’s narcissism and vanity blinds him to the fact that he’s not fooling anybody. Instead of complaining about how easily the press can be manipulated, he should stop manipulating them, himself. Around the time of his fake circus wedding there were probably bigger, more important news stories that would have better served the American public which didn’t get covered because he was busy bribing news outlets and journalists with free tequila to spill their ink about him. He’s a big hypocrite with zero credibility, IMO.
I’d be confused if someone asked me to sign something as rambling and vague as George’s statement. It’s like getting a TAKE ACTION email, without any suggested action.
Also, this reminds me of a variation of the first episode of Black Mirror, but kind of the reverse. The whole scenario seems like a sloppily cobbled plot… like N Korea just woke up from a nap, heard that they’ve been accused of a huge hack and are now bullying Hollywood into submission. N Korea is all “Nrgrgggh… Wuh? Errrr… YEAH… We TOTALLY did that dude. Bow down to our immensitude. “
George Clooney is married to a lawyer, her most prominent client is Julien Assange. Master Hacker.
Mrs Clooney also defends some of the world most unsavoury characters.
How can Mr Clooney not see the irony in his argument.
Has he deliberately set out to embarrass his wife (and her client list).
His household bills are paid with Mrs Clooney’s earnings from Assange and other clients.
Mr Clooney is indeed “out of touch”.
“How can Mr Clooney not see the irony in his argument.”
Ah, but you are assuming that George is smart (and sober) enough to remember what his wife does for a living…
You’re also assuming that he cares about what this year’s beard does for a living. She’ll be gone when her contract is up.
Has anyone seen the story claiming that George never circulated his petition to studio execs?
from Business Insider:
“Representatives for five major studios contacted, The Hollywood Reporter stating that their top executives never received Clooney’s petition. Top executives from 20th Century Fox, Disney, Universal, Lionsgate and Warner Bros say they were never approached or contacted to sign a petition by Clooney or his agent. One anonymous studio head told THR:
“I never heard of it until I saw press about a petition not getting signed. No one I know has heard of it. We were just discussing that, of course, we would’ve signed it, but we had never heard of it, and these were a lot of high-level industry people.”
Of course Clooney offered a different story, telling THR that they asked for support on the petition which everyone pretty much said flat-out “no” too. Clooney claims that there was a letter sent from the head of the MPAA which was to be circulated, which Clooney and his agent rewrote and sent back, including support for the release for the film. This letter was also the petition sent to the studios. Reps from studios say they were approached by Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton to sign an MPAA-backed letter, but it was completely different from the one Clooney described in his Deadline interview.
Many high ranking executives claim they probably would’ve signed Clooney’s petition, had they seen it, because of the good points it made. So why did Clooney lie? Well, whether it was true or false, the story was heard. And because of the backlash that occurred after Sony pulled The Interview out of theaters, they had to rethink their decision. So much so that they changed their minds and released the film today in select theaters.
Read more: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Wait-Did-George-Clooney-Lie-About-Circulating-Petition-Studios-68848.html#ixzz3N20a994s“
LOL @ GC!!! Now that’s what I call “Verbal Diarrhea” from a Pseudo intellectual!! There is a saying “Half filled vessel makes lot of noise”, this “petition” what it sounds like.
Yes, I heard that too. Apparently, NO ONE has received this thing GC produced regardless of his justification. But hey, he is showed up right next to Obama’s picture on TV, got noticed and mission accomplished. Happy 2015 GC! 🙂