{"id":35112,"date":"2014-12-13T05:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T21:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=35112"},"modified":"2014-12-13T00:05:34","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T16:05:34","slug":"studio-head-oscar-winning-producer-apologize-for-insensitive-jolie-obama-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/13\/studio-head-oscar-winning-producer-apologize-for-insensitive-jolie-obama-remarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Studio head, Oscar-winning producer apologize for insensitive Jolie, Obama remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cShe\u2019s<\/a>
\u201cShe\u2019s a camp event and a celebrity and that\u2019s all,\u201d wrote Rudin of Jolie in one exchange about a potential \u201cCleopatra\u201d project. Georges Biard \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES\u2014Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin apologized Thursday for calling Angelina Jolie a \u201cspoiled brat\u201d and making racially offensive jokes about President Obama\u2019s presumed taste in movies.<\/p>\n

The comments were made in a series of leaked email exchanges between Rudin and Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal, who also apologized Thursday. It was yet another embarrassment in the ongoing Sony hacking scandal, in which highly sensitive material is being leaked almost daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivate 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 offence where none was intended,\u201d Rudin said in a statement to industry site Deadline after the Obama remarks surfaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny, but in the cold light of day, they are in fact thoughtless and insensitive\u2014and not funny at all. To anybody I\u2019ve offended, I\u2019m profoundly and deeply sorry, and I regret and apologize for any injury they might have caused.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released soon after by Sony, Pascal called her comments \u201cinsensitive and inappropriate\u201d and \u201cnot an accurate reflection of who I am.\u201d She said that although the emails were \u201cstolen,\u201d she accepts \u201cfull responsibility for what I wrote and apologize to everyone who was offended.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a tweet later Thursday, \u201cScandal\u201d and \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d creator Shonda Rhimes said the comments were \u201cracist,\u201d not merely \u201cracially insensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

This latest shocker in the Sony scandal erupted Tuesday, when the website Gawker posted email exchanges stolen from the studio\u2019s computer systems. The leaks gave the public a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the blunt, often crude way Hollywood does business.<\/p>\n

The emails drawing most of the attention this week were primarily between Rudin, producer of the Academy Award-winning \u201cNo Country for Old Men,\u201d and Pascal, who has held the position since 2006. The two have a decades-old friendship, thanks, in part, to a longstanding deal with the studio, where they\u2019ve worked jointly on projects like \u201cThe Social Network.\u201d<\/p>\n

When juxtaposed with the saccharine graciousness of Hollywood\u2019s awards season, the emails reveal a much darker and, to some, surprising side of the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a camp event and a celebrity and that\u2019s all,\u201d wrote Rudin of Jolie in one exchange about a potential \u201cCleopatra\u201d project.<\/p>\n

In another, as reported by Buzzfeed, Rudin and Pascal also riffed about what she should talk to President Obama about at an upcoming fundraiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould I ask him if he liked DJANGO?\u201d Pascal asked, referring to Quentin Tarantino\u2019s \u201cDjango Unchained.\u201d<\/p>\n

They continued the email chain joking about which films the President might enjoy, referencing \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler,\u201d \u201cThink Like a Man\u201d and \u201cRide Along\u201d\u2014all films with primarily African American casts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet he likes Kevin Hart,\u201d wrote Rudin.<\/p>\n

In a separate email exchange obtained by Gawker, Sony CEO Michael Lyton also called Hart a \u201cwhore\u201d for asking to get compensated for promotional tweets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at myself as a brand and because of that, I will never allow myself to be (taken) advantage of,\u201d Hart responded on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement that the apologies were not enough, comparing Pascal to disgraced NBA owner Donald Sterling and demanding that she meet with black leaders immediately.<\/p>\n

Beyond the scintillating behind-the-scenes peek at the film business, Hollywood is somewhat divided on how to feel to about the unflattering exposure and what it means for Sony. Many are concerned about the ethics of diving into the leaked assets, which have included films, executive salaries, and the Social Security numbers of nearly everyone who has received a paycheque from Sony.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t hold people responsible on how they conduct (emailing) in private or between colleagues, unless they\u2019re doing something illegal,\u201d comedian Ricky Gervais told the AP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost seems like it\u2019s a story line from a film,\u201d said \u201cFoxcatcher\u201d star Steve Carell. \u201cBut the truth is stranger than fiction, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives for Jolie did not immediately respond to the AP\u2019s request for comment, nor did the White House communications office.<\/p>\n

AP Entertainment Writers Sandy Cohen and Derrik Lang contributed to this report. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u2014Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin apologized Thursday for calling Angelina Jolie a \u201cspoiled brat\u201d and making racially offensive jokes about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-hollywood","mauthors-lindsey-bahr","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}