EXCLUSIVE: As it begins to dawn on everyone in Hollywood the reality that Sony Pictures was the victim of a cyberterrorist act perpetrated by a hostile foreign nation on American soil, questions will be asked about how and why it happened, ending with Sony cancelling the theatrical release of the satirical comedy The Interview because of its depiction of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. One of those issues will be this: Why didn’t anybody speak out while Sony Pictures chiefs Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton were embarrassed by emails served up by the media, bolstering the credibility of hackers for when they attached as a cover letter to Lynton’s emails a threat to blow up theaters if The Interview was released?
George Clooney has the answer. The most powerful people in Hollywood were so fearful to place themselves in the cross hairs of hackers that they all refused to sign a simple petition of support that Clooney and his agent, CAA’s Bryan Lourd, circulated to the top people in film, TV, records and other areas. Not a single person would sign. Here, Clooney discusses the petition and how it is just part of many frightening ramifications that we are all just coming to grips with.
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DEADLINE: How could this have happened, that terrorists achieved their aim of cancelling a major studio film? We watched it unfold, but how many people realized that Sony legitimately was under attack?
GEORGE CLOONEY: 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. The Guardians of Peace is a phrase that Nixon used when he visited China. When asked why he was helping South Korea, he said it was because we are the Guardians of Peace. Here, we’re talking about an actual country deciding what content we’re going to have. This affects not just movies, this affects every part of business that we have. That’s the truth. What happens if a newsroom decides to go with a story, and a country or an individual or corporation decides they don’t like it? Forget the hacking part of it. You have someone threaten to blow up buildings, and all of a sudden everybody has to bow down. Sony didn’t pull the movie because they were scared; they pulled the movie because all the theaters said they were not going to run it. And they said they were not going to run it because they talked to their lawyers and those lawyers said if somebody dies in one of these, then you’re going to be responsible.
We have a new paradigm, a new reality, and we’re going to have to come to real terms with it all the way down the line. 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.
DEADLINE: I’ve been chasing the story of the petition you were circulating for a week now. Where is it, and how were these terrorists able to isolate Sony from the herd and make them so vulnerable?
CLOONEY: Here’s the brilliant thing they did. You embarrass them first, so that no one gets on your side. 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.
DEADLINE: What happened when you sent the petition, and who did you ask to sign it?
CLOONEY: It was a large number of people. It was sent to basically the heads of every place. They told Bryan Lourd, “I can’t sign this.” What? How can you not sign this? I’m not going to name anyone, that’s not what I’m here to do, but nobody signed the letter, which I’ll read to you right now.
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.
DEADLINE: That doesn’t sound like a hard paper to sign.
CLOONEY: All that it is basically saying is, we’re not going to give in to a ransom. As we watched one group be completely vilified, nobody stood up. Nobody took that stand. Now, I say this is a situation we are going to have to come to terms with, a new paradigm and a new way of handling our business. Because this could happen to an electric company, a car company, a newsroom. It could happen to anybody.
DEADLINE: You said you won’t name names, but how many people were asked and refused to sign?
CLOONEY: 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.
DEADLINE: What kind of constraints will this put on storytellers that want to shine a critical light on a place like Russia, for instance, with something like a movie about the polonium poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the KGB officer who left and became an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin?
CLOONEY: What’s going to happen is, you’re going to have trouble finding distribution. In general, when you’re doing films like that, the ones that are critical, those aren’t going to be studio films anyway. Most of the movies that got us in trouble, we started out by raising the money independently. But to distribute, you’ve got to go to a studio, because they’re the ones that distribute movies. The truth is, you’re going to have a much harder time finding distribution now. And that’s a chilling effect. We should be in the position right now of going on offense with this. I just talked to Amy an hour ago. She wants to put that movie out. What do I do? My partner Grant Heslov and I had the conversation with her this morning. Bryan and I had the conversation with her last night. Stick it online. Do whatever you can to get this movie out. Not because everybody has to see the movie, but because I’m not going to be told we can’t see the movie. That’s the most important part. We cannot be told we can’t see something by Kim Jong-un, of all f*cking people.
DEADLINE: Some have pointed fingers at the media that feasted on these tawdry emails. Were they culpable in giving the terrorists a foothold, as Aaron Sorkin has said?
CLOONEY: 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?” You could point fingers at Sony pulling the film, but they didn’t have any theaters, they all pulled out. By the way, the other studios were probably very happy because they had movies of their own going in for Christmas at the same cineplexes. There’s this constant circle, this feeding frenzy. What I’m concerned about is content. I’m concerned that content now is constantly going to be judged on a different level. And that’s a terrible thing to do. What we don’t need happening in any of our industries is censorship. The FBI guys said this could have happened to our government. That’s how good these guys were. It’s a serious moment in time that needs to be addressed seriously, as opposed to frivolously. That’s what is most important here.
DEADLINE: As Amy and Michael took their turn in the barrel because of these emails, some questioned why they’d approve a movie that ends with the death of a standing dictator in a hostile foreign country. Others have said she should be able to make any film she wants. It’s a satire. What do you think?
CLOONEY: The South Park guys did it. They blew up his father’s head. The truth of the matter is, of course you should be able to make any movie you want. And, you should take the ramifications for it. Meaning, people can boycott the movie and not go see your film. They can say they’ll never see a Sony movie again. That’s all fine. That’s the risk you take for the decision you make. But to say we’re going to make you pull it. We’re going to censor you. That’s a whole other game. That is playing in some serious waters and it’s a very dangerous pool.
DEADLINE: You mentioned Team America. Some theaters wanted to show it on Christmas after The Interview was pulled as a show of defiance and Paramount pulled it back. They too are afraid of being in the hacker cross hairs.
CLOONEY: Everybody is looking at this from self interest and they are right in this sense. I’m a movie theater and I say, “OK, there’s been a threat. Not really a credible threat, but there’s a threat, and my lawyers call and tell me, “Well, you run the movie and you could be liable.” And all the other movies around it are going to have their business hurt. I understand that, and it makes complete sense. But that’s where we really need to figure what the real response should be. I don’t know what that is yet. We should be talking about that and not pointing fingers at people right now. Right now, it’s not just our community but a lot of communities. We need to figure out, what are we going to do now — when we know the cyberattacks are real, and they’re state-sponsored.
DEADLINE: Knowing what we do now, what does the government owe Sony?
CLOONEY: I’ve seen statements they’ve put out and what the president said and what the response is. The truth is, it’s all new territory and nobody knows how to handle it. I don’t think anyone was prepared for it. So now we’ll be prepared for it, hopefully. Everybody was doing their jobs, but somehow, we have allowed North Korea to dictate content, and that is just insane.
DEADLINE: You said everyone acts based on self interest. What’s yours?
CLOONEY: I wanted to have the conversation because I’m worried about content. Frankly, I’m at an age where I’m not doing action films or romantic comedies. The movies we make are the ones with challenging content, and I don’t want to see it all just be superhero movies. Nothing wrong with them, but it’s nice for people to have other films out there.
On American soil? Sony is a Japanese company with their motion picture subsidiary in the U.S.
Yes, on American soil. They attacked the Culver City campus. Are you really that unfamiliar with the story?
Rogan should grow a pair and publicly apologize for creating this mess;
apologize that he made a mistake in not fictionalizing
his characters, as the common law practice
of movie scripting.
Just end this. You made the mistake,
not Sony.
Why should Rogan apologize?
What about the people who made the pseudo documentary about the assassination of President GW Bush?
That one got international awards!
Ah, but I guess it’s different when you talk about assassinating a Communist head of state, eh?
And, hey, should Charlie Sheen and company go into hiding because they killed Saddam Hussein in Hot Shots?
Three words . Freedom of Speech ! Rogan is free to say or create what ever he likes . If you choose not to partake in what he does . Then DONT
What kind of provocative political satire would we have if we fictionalized all of our characters, particularly those who need to be lampooned the most?
In fact, when making political satire or dramatization it’s quite NOT a common practice to fictionalize the target of the satire.
Honestly, when I read such obtuse comments like yours, I wonder if the Norks aren’t paying people to spread this ridiculous agitprop on American entertainment sites.
Animal Farm. That’s what provocative political satire you’d have by fictionalising the characters and turning them into animals.
Political satire doesn’t need to use names. It also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use names. It just means you shouldn’t be surprised when real people take umbrage at it.
Good point
No, he shouldn’t. He did nothing wrong. It was his legal right to make this movie and make this statement and have it distributed. It appalls me that Rogen is blamed when it’s North Korea who has taken away our national sovereignty in this matter.
Truth stands when nothing else will
Can’t disagree more. They should start working on a sequel immediately.
Amen. That really is the bottom line.
A sniveling coward like you could never grasp the fact that Kim Jong Butterball is the one who made the mistake!
He has nothing to apologize for. You are an idiot and have just told the world that you do not understand your rights as United States citizen. If you want to shit on a canvas and display it as art, you are welcome to do so. It doesn’t mean anyone has to like it or look at, but you have the right to do it. That is one of the most beautiful things about this country. Let the people decide if they want to view something – don’t let someone else, especially a foreign dictator, tell you what you can look at. You don’t have to like the movie. I am sure you like movies or read books or buy products that other people don’t like. But you have the right to do so without worrying about if a dictator on the other side of the planet thinks about it – or at least you used to. Like Clooney said, the world changed and no one even noticed.
What? That’s totally absurd. He should not apologize and he is not responsible for this. How is Seth Rogan responsible for a terrorist attack? The precedent you’d set by blaming him for this is devoid of all consideration.
Really blaming Rogan for this, are you kidding me!!!! Did you not read this article? Did you not see the People VS Larry Flint?This is about free speech. This is not about salacious emails or plot lines. The media can make fun of any political figure, its open season when you are a public figure, at least in this country!! The media rags on most of our leaders, have you ever watched fox news? They blast Obama all day and I may not agree with some of their content but that is their right to do so. Seth was making a statement about how he feels that North Korea is despicable and that is that is his right. Just as Dennis Rodman can go over there act like a Jack-ass and swoon about the dear leader. This is what this country was founded on and if you do not agree with that you do not understand anything about the principles of this country.
Yes, apologize to the terrorists for terrorizing you. Good plan! Let me guess: you voted for Obama twice?
Hey, I voted twice for Obama and think Seth Rogan owes nobody an apology! Stop making generalizations.
Did Obama apologize to Bin Laden? Gee, I thought he ordered his assassination, or execution, or call it what you like.
HE OWES NO APOLOGY! if you think this is about Seth Rogan, you really do not understand the issue at all. If Korea or any other country made a movie using President Obama, the US would NEVER prevent it from being viewed, even if Obama died at the end. President Obama recognizes the difference between what’s real and fiction. We are a country based on certain rights. Free Speach, no censorship. Docudramas are made all the time involving really people including Presidents. This event is a game changer about alot of things. You may be very young person or a very old person who does not understand what just happened because you do not understand the internet.
I mean, Rogan DID make a mess here… But I have to agree with Clooney here, it’s Rogan’s right to do stupid things and cause a mess.
“Common law practice of movie scripting” is dumb- what does that even mean? “Well, everybody is doing things in this halfass, cowardly way, we might as well do it that way too”. That’s lazy.
You Can go with him.
Start licensing people to be able to work in the film industry. Get rid of these idiots.
They don’t even understand what they have done.
Rogan needs to grow a pair and apologize for causing all of this harm. Harm to Sony, Sony employees, theatres, media, everyone in the f ng world. Making Hollywood out to be a bunch of idiots.
Just stop all of this. Rogan needs to apologize and admit he made a mistake not fictionalizing his real life characters, aas common law practice in script writing.
And
producers.
Sony warned him.
Now he’s hiding behind free speech and Sony skirts.
I don’t think that common law practice was exercised in that movie portraying the assassination George W. Bush
That’s just insane! Rogan should be able to create a satirical piece about anyone he chooses. You need to realize this is bigger than just one person or one stupid movie. This allows for forced censorship in any industry. Arts have changed and impacted the views of societies throughout history. Allowing censorship impedes progress.
You’re boldness tell’s me you are ready to go to war. Wouldm’t you prefer to keep everything in peace?
Let me or a black man make a little mess and see what happens.
I’m for free speech, but free speech for all, not just a select few
Shill detected.
Fuck that.
If you really believe that, then you believe that you yourself should have no right to free speech. There is no “common law practice of movie scripting.” It’s called screenwriting, and if you had a relevant opinion, you would know that. It’s a creative medium, not one that needs to comply with some rules. Go back to North Korea!
Technically and realistically, we are still at war with North Korea. The armistice that we signed in 1955 was just that, a temporary truce. North Korea is and always has been in a state of war mindset regarding the USA. Considering the fact that we label the North Korean regime evil and threaten their day to day existence with our overpowering military presence in the Asia Pacific region (imagine a hostile military that is literally hundreds of times more powerful than yours on your doorstep), I think can forgive North Korea for pulling off a tiny prank like this.
This is ar more complicated than “the freedom of speech ” because it resides outside of our system of laws. We have courts to defend our rights. Here we are dealing with a international security issue.
Businesses are in a horrible position.
if you have free speech in america right now why is your name anonymous and most people on every blog i visit use pseudonyms?Is there any possibility someone right here in america will mess with your computer or your lunchbox because they don’t like your opinion? Some advice, don’t go anywhere near a psychiatrist or true patriot. The North Koreans now Know Where the Sony executives live. We will all be in those executive’s shoes soon enough.
Actually you are wrong. Anyone should have the right to say and artistically express anything they want without fear of violence. Ending this to get it over with is short sighted and cowardly. I think you need to rethink your opinion of this before I am censored in telling you that you’re wrong.
cowardice is relative, unless you are afraid of nothing and will do anything. go ahead throw the first stone. And if you cannot express yourself without being censored, at least at this point when the conversation seems perfectly civil, personally i wouldn’t care to hear what you have to say, besides i would not, it would have been censored by free speech, censors, in America. Get it.
Whatever this isn’t about the movie this is about Rogen having the choice to make this movie and us having our first amendment right to choose if we wanted to watch this or not. Not, have Kim Jong Un decide for us.
Have any of you read the newspapers or watched stories about what this Kim Jack-off Un has done? The guy is a freaking nut ball and needs to be stopped. We are the greatest nation on the planet and this little twit is threatening us like we are his servants. Stop this movie or I will hurt you. are you kidding me? Take your ball and go home, asshole. You might be able to tell your people what to do but this is America and we won’t be bullied. Look at the history books, Britain tried that and got a big surprise in 1776. Walk away K. J. Un or you might get a black eye.
Last I checked it was Sony releasing this movie, NOT Seth Rogen. They put their money and marketing muscles behind this knowing full well what it was about. Seth Rogen, needs to apologize for nothing.
I really don’t get what you mean by ‘common law practice’. I know that Charlie Chaplin created a fictionalized character based on Hitler in the movie The Great Dictator. But that got him in trouble anyway. So wouldn’t it have been better if he had just lampooned Hitler and the nazis from the start?
This person bows down to terrorism.
rogan owes no apology. Air the movie have people sign at the ticket box that they are watching at their own risk
Grow a pair? Ironic from someone who doesn’t have the balls to use their own name. “Fan” you are the worst type of hypocrite.
It’s funny that Clooney calls others cowards when he and others are too afraid to call out Amy for her racist emails and instead try to brush them off as no big deal.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Agreed
How is Amy’s email racist? Because she said if Obama will like a movie about black slavery? Because he would ask him about a movie that had black people in it? How is that racist?! So she can’t assume he likes movies that are made about blacks? Common people!!!!!! Get off your high horse of the so called “politically correct behavior.”!
This is how it is today in the USSA…. the United Sensitive States of America.
“How is that racist”? Because it condescends to the president saying that he ONLY watches black movies. Had the email included ANY indication that other films were on the list, it wouldn’t have been called racist.
BTW, I have an extremely low opinion of our pres. but classifying him on the basis of his movie preference does not enter into it.
Because the ONLY movies mentioned in relation to our first Black President were movies about slavery and race. You really don’t see that or are you being defensive and pretending that’s not intentional?
Yup.
Racist, racist RACIST!
Now if someone suggested that President Bush would be interested in cowboy movies…. well that would be okay, now wouldn’t it?
But to suggest… to joke… that President Obama, who has made racial grievance and guilt his primary currency, would be interested in movies that highlight racial grievance and guilt?
Well that’s just unacceptable!
ha ha ha ha!
You know there are such things as jokes. Making a joke about someones race doesn’t make them a racist. I know its a hard concept to grasp. I’m Italian and my Hispanic friends make Italian jokes all the time. Does that make them racist? No, they are just messing around. Stop taking EVERYTHING so serious.
This was honestly immature humor at worst.
No that’s not racist it’s a joke made between two friends. I don’t know your race I don’t care to know your race, but to honest you sound like a white person on your high horse. Either way have you never made a joke with someone else it could even be to a person of another race about some kind of race stereotype and it was funny and perfectly okay; but if someone else read that out of content it would make you look bad. This is the same thing, get over it. It wasn’t mean hearted, it wasn’t racist. Look up the definition of racism, people love to throw that term around but your just wrong.
How is Amy’s email racist? Mostly because of her acting guilty and apologizing, indicating that she meant it to be racist.
I totally agree. There’s a certain kind of political correctness which is uncomfortably akin to ” terrorism “. Pascal was, apparently, a sizeable donor to the Obama Campaign. Let’s cut her a little slack.
SO if I said Amy Pascal only likes the movie Yentl and Scott Rudin probably loves Milk and The Birdcage, I am pretty sure they would Mel Gibson me in this town. Do you get that now John?
Not racist but insensitive to assume a black person is only going to watch movies with black people in it. That’s like white people who assume all black people grew up in the ghetto/hood.
…and why would Amy apologize to Al Sharpton, of all people. If she felt an apology was necessary, she should have used means to attract a large audience.
He had a private screening if the movie “42”, and ,I’m sure, many others. But it was publicized that they had that viewing and that publicity certainly had something to do with being black and the movie being based on the story of black history in sports. (in the face!)
So, why is it bad to associate his taste for films in relation to his race, color, or heritage? I would be more inclined to watch a film that was related to my home town or about people similar to me and so would most people. (Bam)
John’s perspective is arguably valid. If she were talking about Lindsey Vonn and wondered what she thought about movies about femlae athletes, would that make her sexist?
Would Amy be considered a homophobe if they were discusing Edith Windsor and wondered if Ms Windsor would enjoy The Imitation Game or Milk?
Exactly!
They were also too cowardly to comment on recent protests related to Eric Garner/Ferguson.
They’re useless. Unless an ice bucket is involved.
Holy shit, you are so off fucking topic. Are you really too stupid to realize, or even ignore, the situation? You’re criticizing the one dude in Hollywood with enough balls to stand up to a fucking leader of a nuclear power who is willing to fucking BOMB ANY MOVIE THEATER WHO SHOWS THE MOVIE, as well as vocally and openly defy Kim Jong Un even with the high risk of being hacked, have any of his personal information up for grabs, as well as possibly have reputation ruined for dirt dug up on him in messages said in confidence? You’re really going to call THAT dude a coward. Please, kindly go fuck yourself and jack off to racial injustice you have been spoonfed as real without any question of context, while 40,000 Americans’ lives have been ruined, all the while claiming that a person is a coward for reserving his right to free speech and freedom to NOT speak.
Ferguson?
FERGUSON?
How high are you?
What does a cop protecting a neighborhood, and protecting himself in Ferguson, MO have to do with Hollywood, CA?
I suppose some responsible showbiz figures might have stepped forward to condemn the racist attacks on the police and exhortations to burn the city down …
But, really, what was there for anyone in Hollywood, 1800 miles from Ferguson, to say that would be in any way relevant or constructive?
Don’t worry, Anonymous. When the cinematic release comes out, we won’t even recognize the Ferguson story anymore:
M. Brown will be on his way to a religious revival, after having just finished volunteering at an abused-children’s home (or at an abortion center, depending on the director); the cop will be portrayed as a closeted Grand Dragon Klan Member or Conservative Christian (same difference to Hollywood)); he stole the cigar paper, certainly not to roll joints for himself, but as a gift to his uncle suffering from AIDS, excruciating pain from end-stage renal failure after decades of dialysis, or with glaucoma (and he’s simply too poor to be able to pay for it, you see); his pushing of the store manager into the food aisle? … well, that was to save him from a runaway shopping cart — pushed at him by a Mormon or Catholic Nun (depending on the movie’s Executive Producer); and, of course, Ferguson will be portrayed as Selma circa 1958.
Welcome to the land of moral inversion. This hacking, though I deplore it, couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
I mean, that’s a totally separate issue, though. He isn’t talking about ALL of the woes happening in America right now, just this issue.
Besides, no one said George Clooney is perfect- I’m sure he’s hypocritical about other things, but he does make some very good points here.
Not. The. Point. At. All.
Anonymous, I admire your use of the word fuck and it’s various forms. Please get back to us when you can express a thought without the vulgarities, ok?
You fucking dumbass!
I don’t hear the “f” word often, but that is freedom of speech – get over it – it is expressive!
So you’d let North Korea dictate content as much as they please as long as one person is called out for being a racist?
I seriously think we have bigger issues going on than one bigot sending an email
Absolutely! I am heartbroken to have the reality of cowardice and the easily offended this week come to such extent. I didn’t want to see “The Interview”, but I would go Christmas day, just to stand up for my freedom to do so.
The F word we should be talking about is FEAR.
Kelly, that is exactly the point. She should be FREE to write what she wants.
I am NOT a Clooney fan … UNTIL TODAY. The man is right that we cannot allow anyone to determine what we can say or do … to terrorize us into submission.
Your behavior is exactly what North Korea wanted … you are helping silence someone … you are helping destroy freedom of speech.
Right on!
Yep I also 100%! We can not be bullied into submission and yet it happened……..We as a nation (government) need to stop rolling over every time something happens. The problem is that everyone feels the need to be politically correct and they are scared to go up against anything! We need to put our big girl/boy panties on and take care of our people in this country and we need to stop caring if one group or person gets upset. We didnt get where we are right now by rolling over and letting everyone have their way with us. We fought, concurred and battled and if were not careful we can fall just as fast as we arouse.
Thank the Gods I’m not the only one who sees that!
And you know, this goes for any movie. Any movie. If North Korea had threatened, I dunno, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas movie – hell, no. I may think Kirk and his movie are lame, but by dammit it’s his American right to make it, say it, and distribute it.
If the Tea Party got together and made a satirical movie ending with the assassination of, I dunno, Fidel Castro or some communist leader – I may think it’s a lame movie but by dammit it’s their American right to make it, say it, and distribute it.
People really need to widen this focus on this one and see the chilling big picture, pun intended.
I agree. I wasn’t a Clooney fan either…UNTIL TODAY! He is so right!
Some people take it to far. Amy pascal should be ashamed of herself. And I’m happy they got shut down. Last time I use my freedom of speech and told my job I thought that they were being racist towards me I got fired so freedom of speech only protect certain people. The majority
^^ You nailed it. The fact that so many people in this country are so busy reading the emails and being appalled, while ignoring the bigger issue, worries me as much as Sony’s cowardice.
I do find it funny though since Clooney is such a strong Obama supporter, why hasn’t he come out and spoken up for gun rights. It is a freedom also, but he only speaks up on a freedom that involves his livelihood. All of our freedoms are important to each and every one of us.
Clooney is trying to point out a much larger problem. If we allow other countries to censor what we produce, how long before it becomes unacceptable to put out anything that offends ANYONE? Freedom of speech has nothing to do with content and everything to do with the right to voice an opinion or artistic vision. That freedom is already under attack, let’s not flush it completely.
I Agree!!
I agree. Geez what’s happening to this country. You go Clooney!!! Stand up as we all should!
Yet that is what liberals do. LOL
Brian, you can say what you want and technically so can Amy, except she is the head of one of the biggest movie companies in the world. What she says reflects on thousands of careers and many cultural products.
Clooney’s right: she made a huge mistake. Many of her employees are likely disappointed in her leadership. However, censorship is the much bigger issue here.
That doesn’t excuse these comments. I don’t know how long she’ll maintain the support of her colleagues. Regardless of free speech, we are all still responsible for our words.
“I am NOT a Clooney fan … UNTIL TODAY. ”
THIS! I have a new-found respect for this man who had the orbs to say what is right. We cannot cave to some idiot hackers working for one of the least respected countries of the world. How sad that the movie industry is now KJU’s B****.
Clooney just might have a future in politics
uh…he says that her comments were “a mistake” ;)
if that isn’t a rationalization of racism, not sure what is.
the next time a racist issue foments in media, everyone should just quote George, “it was a mistake”
People need to realize that acquiescing to the demands of a terrorist state over one movie is a huge defeat for America. What other demands will be made of us by those who kill their own citizens who dare to think differently? Will we continue to be told what entertainment we can view, what
religion we can or can not have, what can be taught in our schools, what we can say in public or not? Oh wait a minute….this is what the American Left is already doing to an extent. Say the wrong thing and lose your livelihood. PC thought and speech is an insidious practice. Personally I loathe profanity and gratuitous violence. But enslavement is something I find even more abhorrent. Hollywood is bereft of truly free thinkers and they have built their own prison by demanding that all think in the same way as far as race, gender, etc. They have stood by or vilified others who have expressed themselves freely, particularly if they are not in step with the Leftist agenda. And when threatened themselves have proven themselves to be very cowardly. This is a huge defeat for them, but also a shame for the USA.
Not really his words to be apologizing for.. he thinks she fucked up.. but her words arent the point.. that was all leaked to make you pay attention to what she said and not the real issue
maybe it was racist, maybe it wasn’t. that’s up to you to decide. but we deal with racism in this country ALL the time. that’s nothing new and also not the point. we’re dealing with something A LOT larger than that.
That would be a better response than “it was justified” as they’ve been saying with Ferguson and Eric Garner in NY.
Or you could just realize racism isn’t as big of an issue as your freedom of speech being taken away. How would you be able to complain about racism if you can’t speak freely?
Hi Iconic Freedom… so wow…George Clooney isn’t racist… He has worked to bring attention to saving the people from genocide in Darfur (Sudan region).
What more can you say?
In the grand scheme of what happened it isn’t a big deal Kelly. Pull your head out of where the sun don’t shine and look at the bigger picture of what has happened here. This isn’t about a couple off the cuff remarks sent in a private email. 10TB of personal and proprietary information was stolen hurting thousands of people and their families. A major corp. being told by an outside rouge country they aren’t allowed to show a movie on foreign soil or we will kill people. Theatre chains caving because they fear getting sued. That’s the real story here. Not a dumb email you perceive as racist. Get real.
Which is Clooney’s point exactly, that we are missing the big picture. No pun intended.
I am wondering why people are not being more sympathetic to the theaters who don’t want to see their patrons get hurt. The idea that someone else is supposed to do the risky thing shows real cowardice. Or is a lawsuit that will put you out of business just too tedious to bother about?
Ummm because now it becomes a terrorist act without them carrying out any real threats. Wimpy and selfish on theatres part. If there was a real threat the FBI wouldve been on it
I agree Jason! The real story here is another country threatened a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. They committed a cyber attack (which is also terrorism) on innocent U.S. citizens. A country did this! Not one hacker. A country.. and everyone is all focused on ridiculous emails. We need to be looking at the bigger picture. Another country just attacked the U.S. and no one stopped it or saw it coming. Instead we said “ok, we’ll do what you say”. George is right.. this is new territory for us but this blows the door wide open for others who don’t like what we are doing to threaten the U.S. Will banks close because another country doesn’t like that they fund things they don’t agree with? Since when do we allow someone like Kim Jong Un to tell us what to do?
I agree Jason! The real story here is another country threatened a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. They committed a cyber attack (which is also terrorism) on innocent U.S. citizens. A country did this! Not one hacker. A country.. and everyone is all focused on ridiculous emails. We need to be looking at the bigger picture. Another country just attacked the U.S. and no one stopped it or saw it coming. Instead we said “ok, we’ll do what you say”. George is right.. this is new territory for us but this blows the door wide open for others who don’t like what we are doing to threaten the U.S. Will banks close because another country doesn’t like that they fund things they don’t agree with? Since when do we allow someone like Kim Jong Un to tell us what to do?
This is what you get with a leftist American president who thinks this country is to blame for all the ills of the world. An American president who has been a coward in international affairs for the past six years. An American president who sides with our geopolitical enemies. This is your “Hope and Change” America.
Wow. Its the leftist presidents fault. Just wow. Go back to commenting on fox news stories.
Really? This is what you get for listening to lying faux news…and totally off topic…show the movie and tell n.korea they don’t like it,we can always bomb them back to the stone age and let them try again! We are already afraid of what someone can do with a gun,now we are afraid of what cyber terrorists can do…they have to be stopped and we have to stand firm in our freedom!
All censorship is repressive: Good citizens should rally together in complete disobedience to our wanna be repressors! The slimy lawyers, and their sycophant believers must be outed and marginalized appropriately!
Well, considering all the damage Bush’s ‘cowboy politics’ did to America’s international image/goodwill abroad, I’d say that isn’t the correct way either.
But this isn’t about Obama’s presidency, that’s a different issue.
Wow, how is this not Off Topic?
And by your standards id be led to believe that Obama ended all the wars. Stopped drone strikes killing thousands of people. Closed Guantanamo and ended the torture…. Wait a minute are you talking about the same Obama? Last I checked he’s George Bush 2.0, so I really don’t understand how label him as a “international affairs coward”. I guess George bush was an international affairs coward+idiot. I really wonder what world you live in sometimes, then I look at FOX tv for five minutes and it all makes sense, you swallow every bit of propaganda bullshit they feed you. I hope you die from obesity like a true FOX tv republican.
Wow you literally missed the whole point of this article
No, his point is that the bigger story that affects everyone in this country regardless of race or cultural identity is that a foreign country has hijacked our free speech and our sovereignty. That’s huge. And appalling.
This is not about juicy emails, did you even read the article? This is about the dictator of NK telling is what we can and cant release. Controling our content.
If your focus is on a bunch of emails that clearly demonstrate that Amy and Scott were joking around, then you have some major problems because guess what!? We joke in our emails. For example, my best friend is black – she emails me and says, you really want me to go see this white people movie. and guess what, if our emails were leaked, she would look like a racist but in reality. We were just joking.
As Clooney said, the content that was dug up from these hacks are a big distraction from the larger issue.
Racist content in a PRIVATE email is no big deal. People like you are exactly the public opinion pawns that these hackers can depend upon. They want people like you pointing fingers in the wrong direction.
WOW! What an enormous fool!
America is attacked by another country and all you can say is “One of the people who was attacked is a racist.”!!!
Didn’t READ the article, did you?!!!
And who is really the racist? Someone who makes a private joke, or someone who is constantly on the lookout for something to call “racism”. The problem in America isn’t racism. That was largely gone before race baiters like Barrack Obama and, YOU!
Racist or not, Amy has freedom of speech, just like The Interview. Zooming in on this kind of detail shows you don’t really understand the bigger problem here, which is exactly what Clooney is trying to say in this interview. We have allowed a threat to tell us what we are allowed to do. That is the point. Get with it, because this won’t be the first time. Don’t waste your time worrying about what other people say in an email – there is no doubt you have written emails yourself that other people would not approve of. The amazing thing is, you have the right to do it and so does she… and so does Seth Rogen and The Interview.
You’re missing the point. When another country attacks ours physically or intellectually and we cave in to their demands? That’s a sign of weakness which is dangerous not only for the film industry but our entire nation where most if not all of our industries are connected through the World Wide Web. Their emails were petty and benign albeit racist. But this problem at hand supersedes a couple of dumb remarks that were made in private. Behind closed doors I think most would find themselves on the wrong side of the fence for saying if not doing some unsavory BS perhaps?
Apparently, you missed the point of the message above. It’s about the BIGGER PICTURE, not some stupid emails that some bozo wrote.
Oh please. It doesn’t take courage to call Amy’s emails racist. Everyone and their sister is doing that. Who says Clooney is “afraid?” Perhaps he just doesn’t want to pile on and get all self-righteous about something she’s already taking a ton of flack for.
Really, that is all you took away from Clooney’s article? The e-mails are not the point. It’s irrelevant what was in the emails – and it is scary to me that so many people are ignoring the fact. A foreign government is dictating what a privately-held business can do or not do. Who gives a crap what was in the emails?
@Kelly. That’s Clooney’s point. The industry was obsessed with scandalous “racist emails” — and the hackers brilliantly so, preyed upon the industry (and by extension, American media cultural) obsession and hypocrisy with it all. Meanwhile, Pascal’s more concerned with Rev. Al atonement than with terrorist censorship. Put that into context outside of our myopic, Americentric obsessions with “offending people.”
You’re missing the point of this interview. Clooney is addressing a different point on this saga. He is brushing it off slightly because, as he keeps saying, he’s concerned about censorship by North Korea! This issue needs at least the same attention as the Amy/Obama story, which clearly can’t happen if everytime people talk about terrorism here itcomes back to the emails instead.
Clooney did stated that he had issues with her emails about the president.
He did call her out! Re-read the interview!
The irony is, that Amy, Sony and those cowards of Hollywood, are now, quite possibly going to have to turn to the President and government she took pleasure in belittling to get a handle on this mess..
I agree with Mr. Clooney, there was a major part of this huge mess the press simply ignored and Hollywood’s elite were too self centered and weak, to stand up for. Our freedom of expression, of free speech was threatened and Hollywood caved in.
Was the movie offensive, yes…but Hollywood offends and exploits “certain” cultures and people all the time… The Germans always take big hits, blacks are most always slaves, servants or drug dealers, Mexicans are always portrayed as weak, in some form of servitude or poor and needy. In reality, all of these people work extremely hard and have served this country well.
Hollywood has always been insensative and offensive to other cultures. They have just been made to take a hard look at themselves. Instead of standing up for their offensive beliefs, they run and hide.
Yes, it is a much bigger problem than Hollywood now… perhaps President Obama will come up with something to get Hollywood back on track to being as offensive as usual.
Yes, nothing should stand in the way of hollywood making more racist and
insulting movies about non-whites.
Unlike blacks, North korea has the muscle to do
to do something about it.
You’re right. The real story here isnt the complete chilling of freedom of speech by a foreign power, its some off color comments made in a private email by one woman.
It’s not a private email, it’s a corporate email. There’s a huge difference.
This is great.
He is not addresses it Kelly, because what he is talking about is a lot bigget then one stupid racist remark from one racist person. It is not his place to comment on that. What is at stake is are we as a country going to allow other groups, countries, etc.. dominate what we can and can not say, view or even do? If Korea has had success, other governments, terrorists groups, or just hackers who want to extort money can do so by effectively cyber bullying. Also, email hacking is just is just the tip of the ice burg of what these hackers may be capable of doing, who knows. The hackers have home addresses, social security and phone numbers and who knows what else. They are extremely sophisticated hacking. They may be able to shut down our global markets, cites governments, etc… So hacking gossiping stupid emails from high powered execs is minor. And by the way, no one likes a racist but it is still free speech. People are still allowed to spout off stupid off colored remarks every day with no consequences. I would also bet there are even emails you have posted that if you were honest, you would not want read in public or regretted sending.
The irony is, that Amy, Sony and those cowards of Hollywood, are now, quite possibly going to have to turn to the President and government she took pleasure in belittling to get a handle on this mess..
I agree with Mr. Clooney, there was a major part of this huge mess the press simply ignored and Hollywood’s elite were too self centered and weak, to stand up for. Our freedom of expression, of free speech was threatened and Hollywood caved in.
Was the movie offensive, yes…but Hollywood offends and exploits “certain” cultures and people all the time… The Germans always take big hits, blacks are most always slaves, servants or drug dealers, Mexicans are always portrayed as weak, in some form of servitude or poor and needy. In reality, all of these people work extremely hard and have served this country well.
Hollywood has always been insensative and offensive to other cultures. They have just been made to take a hard look at themselves. Instead of standing up for their offensive beliefs, they run and hide.
Yes, it is a much bigger problem than Hollywood now… perhaps President Obama will come up with something to get Hollywood back on track to being as offensive and culturally insensitive as usual.
u ever say something u wished you hadn’t??
he’s not brushing off the emails as no big deal. he said the comments in the emails were a “terrible mistake” and one he couldn’t make an excuse for. that is not brushing it off. he addresses them. what Clooney is saying is that the story focused on the wrong things. the real story is not that Sony is the bad guy for making stupid remarks in emails or for pulling the movie. the real story is that the movie industry just changed dramatically because an outside country told it to.
It isn’t just the movie industry that is now existing in a new world, it’s the entire country and infrastructure.
All industries, all services
Right!
He mentions her email here, he basically said “yeah, that’s fucked up. But this other part is ALSO fucked up”.
Way to miss the overall point, bitch.
Clooney calls her out *in the interview*! Didn’t you read it?
You are feeding into exactly what he is saying. He’s not saying that it wasn’t a problem that Amy wrote those things…he’s saying that is NOT THE BIG STORY here. News outlets printed that bc it’s embarrassing and wrong, but that story already got plenty of coverage – but what they weren’t covering was that this was released by a country threatening to KILL people. Sony family members and theater goers. This is a country whose dictator has PRISON CAMPS WORSE THAN NAZI GERMANY. Watch the 60 minutes on the North Korean prisoner who escaped from their camp and you will see the kind of horror that goes on in North Korea. Starving North Koreans eat grass fields of grass because there is no food.
Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin sending some racial insensitive emails about the President is demeaning and in very poor taste but it is NOT THE STORY.
This wasn’t a whistleblowing event, it was a direct attack.
This isn’t “Oh, you found dirt on Sony? Congratulations, you won and we’ll allow you to censor what you want.”
Interesting comments but it seems to me Clooney was pointing out that while many were so concerned with the discovery of potentially “racist emails” the bigger issue is we, the American people and our government, turned our back on a new major attach on our nation and allowed a foreign country to threathen/blackmail this nation into national censorship over fear of what might happen. Shame on us! We, the American public, allowed that to happen. What’s next?
Its not about the “racist” emails. Jesus christ, its about a terrorist attack on American soil. Can we not make everything about race… so myopic.
They really aren’t that big a deal in the big picture. He actually says that there’s so much more going on than correspondence between two people over email.
If you genuinely believe it is, then you’re part of the problem (The very problem Clooney mentions in this article).
irrelevant digression. amy has since publicly apologized and expressed sincere remorse for her comments. she can’t do anything else but apologize, hope for forgiveness, and move on.
it’s sensitive idiotic SJWs like you that miss the point and let that issue detract from the MUCH LARGER ISSUE of THOUSANDS of hard working employees’ personal information being STOLEN and who are now exposed to identity theft and the fact that everyone was so preoccupied with villifying those at the top for some insensitive and classless remarks to miss the bigger picture.
If Mel Gibson’s e-mail’s came out saying what those e-mails said, both Hollywood and the Press would spend a month beating him up
Suppose your email was hacked and broadcast to the world. Most of us are relatively not really that well known but everyone of your email that are currently in you email box exposed would you be burned? What sad is People listen to the garbage I think George was a stud at least he stood for something.
He’s talking about the impact that the movie had on 1st amendment speech, that’s another topic that would be quite the digression from the actual discussion.
I certaintly agree with you
Your views of racism is disturbing. Mentioning people of an ethnicity or race would likely prefer movies where the majority of their ethnicity or race is depicted is truth, not racism. Go to college campuses, restaurants, etc. You’ll see groups largely comprised of the same enthnicity. Why, because people, animals, insects tend to gravitate toward similar-looking people, animals, insects. Are bees racist because they don’t invite butterflies to their hives? Is it racist to have a call a beehive a beehive? Because you’re not exactly welcoming other insects to the hive…
It’s inappropriate, racism is a big deal, but crucifying one person at the expense of detracting interest from the terrorist act shouldn’t have happened. The emails were insensitive but should not have been the immediate and absolute focus!
And meanwhile Kelly stupid people like you are more worried about a stupid email than the big picture. North Korea idiots like you would flip out over something so trivial instead of the fact that we were just censored by an oppressive regime because you are a trivial person and that’s all you care about
You completely missed the point of this censorship article. I couldn’t care less about those private emails. It’s not relevant to a conversation where the issue is a terrorist regime halting the free speech and expression of people in a free country!
Keep It going!!
Maybe because we are focusing on a larger issue here, like terrorist attack, not some remarks that were made in a personal email which some people are overly sensitive about.
North Korea just broke us and all you can think about is some salacious email? She’s racially insensitive. Fine. Get over it and pay attention to the real story, which is actually about Americans surrendering their liberty to North Korea’s whims.
Maybe Kelly has had better things to do than sit in front of the tv as the press shoves this down our throats over and over and over. Yes, it’s important. The networks just don’t know when to slow down.
Most Hollywood movies are totally full of shit…I am familiar with that much.
How hard did the subsidiary fight four better security? We know the answer to that. It wasn’t just rude e-mails that were leaked, all their intellectual property, everything. Who does business like that?
Who cares, unless you’re a Sony shareholder? What impacts us is that a foreign government is OPPRESSING us! Doesn’t that bother you? It sure as shit bothers ME!
Agreed, it bothers the shit out of me too!
Hi Marcus, I agree. It more than bothers the shit out of me. Sony should be handing out copies for free. H@ll, I’d pay for one and I wouldn’t have gone to see it to start with. This little petty dictator needs a solid kick in the butt.
Me too. Once a day.
Well, the people who’s information is now floating around waiting to be used by identity thieves is who cares. It will be interesting to see how American HIPAA privacy violations apply to a Japanese company on US soil involving US citizens. In this data was various medical letters that SHOULD result in some huge fines…Sony has violated the law by having these documents sitting around in Word / Excel on their local drives.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. How does HIPPAA apply? Can anyone who disseminates private medical data be prosecuted?
All to bring about impending censorship and the loss of the First Amendment. This is an “inside” job… just like Stuxnet.
HIPAA doesn’t apply at Sony. HIPAA is the acronym for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a US law designed to provide privacy standards to protect patients’ medical records and other health information provided to health plans, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.
HIPPA is as useful for privacy as the TSA is for protection; good in theory, sucks in practice.
While people are thinking there are proper limits to what others can find out about personal health issues, the truth is the information is only dangerous to us when the GVOERNMENT has access! You know, the ones with the guns.
HIPPA is a typical bureaucrat wet dream.
HIPPA? Are you that dense? HIPPA protects the privacy of individual health information, it has nothing to do with freedom of speech or censorship.
I’m so mad I can’t go see this dumb, pointless comedy I wasn’t planning to see anyway!
Agreed the United States has just been censored.
John Iuricich, right to the point. That’s exactly what has happened here. What’s next? Syria hacks into Universal and bombs any theaters who show a movie they don’t approve of. Why can’t people who make these knee-jerk decisions step back and see the larger picture (pun intended)?
There’s the words that i’m feeling, thanks, i’m besides myself, don’t know why this act has outraged me even more than a bunch of terrorist hijacking people for ranson and death! Btw no way Sharpton just stay the hell away from this, not in tbhe mood for you either!
HAHAHA… Our own government is oppressing us by hacking everybody all the time, training police for martial law, and funding jihadists with tax dollars so they can torture children.
I predict Obama will have sympathy for his fellow dictator and issue an Executive Order banning all satire of world leaders, especially of himself. This the end of freedom.
Just remember it was a law enforcement tool that breached Apple iCloud and leaked nude pictures of Jennifer Lawrence.
You are not being oppressed by North Korea. Stop confusing being threatened, annoyed, and exposed with oppression.
I’m completely with Anonymous and TruthInSpending – screw North Korea and their tiny dictator with huge self-esteem issues . . . you don’t get to tell us what we can create, show or watch. Clooney is exactly right, a very dangerous precedent has been set to put us on a seriously slippery slope. I’d happily buy a copy of this movie or watch it daily on VOD.
Maybe if we give them a billion dollars,they will like us
Yeah I think anyone involved with that business or is helping with the process of disseminating stolen property associates themselves with terrorist. This is leading to less freedoms for individuals when one does not restrain themselves. If you just respond like a dog to your stimulus response it does make you an animal it make you worse than an animal because dogs Do not have the capacity to choose but we do.
Trivial distinction. The movie is American, and Americans (and the world) are being prohibited from watching a movie because a foreign government doesn’t like it. You think it’s gonna end here? There are a lot of foreign governments and other entities that would love to control what we can or can’t watch, read, or know about.
So that if an “American Company” supposedly attacked by North Korea (debatable at best) was actually not an American company, but Japanese, then…an attack on America? Really? I didn’t really know how uneducated Hollywood was until now.
Lol telzy the attack was on the Culver City campus… it was against intellectual property created by American filmmakers. Yeah it was an attack against us.
Seth and Evan are Canadian and taking over American comedy, so maybe they are behind the hacking.
Follow the money…
Leave. This. Planet. The world is already dumb enough without your idiotic contributions.
This is your take on this event? And you’re worried about ignorance in Hollywood? Welcome to town.
Ignorance is unintentional; stupidity is intentional. You are certainly one. You decide.
And I can’t believe how gullible the average person has become? Doesn’t anyone understand how contrived this entire situation really Is? The political leaders must roll over laughing at how easily people are led.
May God save us all. And , by the way, when did movie star figures “speak” on behalf of “all of us”?
And there’s the rub. North Korea, or more correctly, it’s “dear leader” considered it offensive, so they went on the attack.
The same thing is going on in this country under the banner of political correctness.
If certain groups based on color, sexual preference, etc., find something offensive and in bad taste, politicians pander to them by banning or trying to ban the use of those words in public media.
Anyone who doesn’t toe the line is immediately attacked and labeled a racist, homophobe, or any other mean spirited epithets that will discourage such “behavior” in the future.
Further, the government in some circumstances may act, or consider acting against those who refuse to abide by their standards. (See the Washington Redskins as one example, or Donald Sterling for another, even though he may suffer from dementia)
They are all acts of intimidation and coercement, based on nothing more than emotional drivel.
See if I speak out against someone’s racism that’s me exercising my free speech. If I threaten to bomb them for it, that’s a whole different thing. Don’t confuse the two.
True
Sorry Truthseeker, you can’t jump on this and use it to whine about how your not being allowed to keep others from their basic rights as US citizens. No one is saying you have to give up your beliefs or personal “standards”, you just can’t expect to dictate them to others ..just like ole Kim shouldn’t be allowed to dictate his “standards” on us. Get it? You are free to say and believe, think and worship however you please but we are also free to speak against you, boycott your business, etc. That’s how freedom works. You don’t have to back down, but you can’t whine about people expressing their own thoughts and exercising their own rights as US citizens.
Yes that is true and sadly one is in DC.
Well said!
…and, regardless, we are still obligated to protect Japan after WWII, because we stripped them of their military. No matter how hard you try to pretend, we’re messed up in this and it’s up to us to do something about it.
your brain is obviously somewhere but on this planet. do us all a favor and follow it.
Sony Pictures is really Columbia/Tri-Star Pictures. ‘Sony’ is just the parent company. The studio and employees are located right here in Culver City, CA. It’s as Amercian as it gets.
Don’t confuse the liberals with facts… They don’t do facts, or free speech, or tolerance, or any other thing they claim… The US is doomed as long as the majority of secondary and university teachers are liberals because they are poisoning the minds of young Americans…
And there it is, the ubiquitous off-topic blathering, misguided generalization about Liberals, by a radicalized troll. BORING!
#1 Way off topic
#2 last I read, republicans are the majority in the senate, and still blaming everyone for everything!!
Technically democrats are still the majority until the new year. How daft are you?
Not yet cowboy, not til next year will they be a majority
The Republicans will not become the majority in the Senate until January. Please wait until then to criticize them for something they may or may not do.
You are truly an idiot.
Correct! Sony Corp (ADR)(NYSE:SNE) there’s still an ADR in that quote…
For the Hippie/Occupiers: SEC “The stocks of most FOREIGN companies that trade in the U.S. markets are traded as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).”
funny how the Democrat Trade Unionists are so anti-foreign automakers opening (non-union) shop in the USA, claiming they are just using American labor to send profits back overseas, but didn’t say Jack about Sony buying their way into Hollywood with the 1989 Columbia Pictures deal.
I guess as long as the left gets their Unions they don’t really give a hoot about America?
Where is Japan in all this then? Last I checked if a Japanese citizen owned a house in the U.S. and it was burglarized, it happened on U.S. soil. Where do the servers “live” that were hacked? Not a well thought out comment macemoneta!!!
Sony Entertainment Pictures is a wholly owned U.S. company. It is NOT a Japanese country.
Please note that Sony Pictures is in Culver City, California. The employees are American. The billions it generates go to Americans, who spend it almost entirely in America, which employees other Americans.
I’ve never been a fan of George Clooney as an actor or director. I actually think Tom Selleck is a much better actor. Am I in the minority?
Yes.
Meaning absolutely nothing. It’s operating in America with Americans as an American company.
Guess I’m in the minority opinion because I think this is about US corporate refusal to take security seriously. They don’t want to cut into their profit to implement security to protect themselves and anyone doing business with them. If you won’t take corporate security seriously you will pay the price. What is the US govt supposed to do go to war because of cheap-arsed corporations? I see the issue as security. Sony got hit because of a stupid arrogant movie but this could happen to anyone.
Corporations have all the motive in the world to take their security seriously, because not doing so will cut into profits. As far as I’m concerned, that’s their problem to figure out, how much to budget for security and where to draw the line.
I’m concerned with the part that affects me: as an American, I am being prohibited from seeing a movie because a foreign government doesn’t like it. If the US government were the ones censoring this movie, would that be okay with you? Then why allow a foreign government to oppress us like this?
Sony did not take security seriously. Read the recent Fusion article. Jason Spaltro, the executive director of information, said in the past that there was a “valid business decision to accept the risk” of a security breach, and that he wouldn’t invest $10 million to avoid a possible $1 million loss. Go read the article now if you want to see just how bad Sony’s network security was before the hacking.
Their IT department was sub-par. What’s your point? You have an awesome firewall?
You’re illiterate.
Define cut into their profits. Yes, if publicly traded companies implement top-notch security, it will ensure the business stays intact. That said, security is expensive and relatively thankless. Most corporations are on such short term guidance these days, that they really only care about meeting next quarter’s financial expectations.
This is an attitude that is changing very rapidly. Network security consultants are about to experience a bonanza.
What we need is to fight the short term guidance. That’s a fair point but this is Wall Street’s speculator mentality threatening us in a roundabout sense. If we didn’t have short term speculation, we could begin to fix the issues here.
Would you build a multi million dollar home and not spend the extra, say $25,000, on a security system…?
Typical American individualism. This is an issue that affects banking, retail, and pretty much everything we do in this country. And yet your panties are in a bunch over being denied a viewing of what looked like a truly awful film. Even if it was a truly fine film, the issue is bigger than Americans crying over a movie they can’t see right now. We are in such trouble in this country because of our short sighted me first values.
I think it’s far more offensive that a foreign country is pushing their totalitarian world view the American public. I know it’s a little ironic since the U.S. has been accused of the same. But the difference is that as Americans we, for the most part, support complete freedom of press, though, art. etc…, not the blocking of a film.
Why didn’t they attack
dumb and dumber to ?? ????????
It’s insulting to dumb people.
They have rights to.
I feel the same about Phenomenon! I have that cos cosmic brain disease and let me tell you, I’ve never fenced in a rabbit.
I agree
you misspelled TWO
Actually, it wasn’t misspelled. That’s the actual spelling of the movie title…
The movie spelled it to.
No, he just didn’t finish the sentance with what they have rights to DO!
Actually, the movie is titled “Dumb and Dumber To” in the movie, they purposely misspelled ‘two’
that’sthejoke.jpg
Not a mis-spelling, the film is called Dumb and Dumber To, that’s the joke!
WOW! Your comment is dumb… Check out the movie title.
Be nice :)
No they didn’t.
Hear, hear.
You are right on the mark, and this is being largely overlooked by the media. Cyber security is an illusion, and it will always be such. There is no such thing as one hundred percent security in any electronic system.
The old adage that there are only two certainties, death and taxes, is still true today. Everything else is fair game.
@don’t cry “… this is about US corporate refusal to take security seriously. … ”
Nail on the head.
Crier: No, you’re not in the minority. As someone who works in the security industry I can assure you most private corps give it short shrift — until something like this happens. Now Sony will probably have to spend millions to someone like Mandiant (a great firm by the way) when they could have been spending 1/10th of that for basic encryption and security. Unfortunately the bean counters still run everything, and they’ll never view security as good ROI….and we will continue to be the country of 20/20 hindsight.
According to the FBI this cyber attack was devious enough that it could have cracked US government systems. It is the same type of attacks that were used against south korean government systems and banks.
No corporation or government in the world could have stopped this. (yet)
North Koreas government is currently the number 1 cyber criminal organization in the world.
… And inadequate defensive positions on December 7th 1941 meant the Japanese get a free pass at sinking the US fleet. /rolls eyes
They didn’t want to sign a position because they don’t want George Clooney leading the charge?
They see this for what it is: Clooney brown nosing Pascal who greenlit his awful Monument Men which flopped finacially and critically. Clooney wants to be all high and mighty but he has no credibily when he refuses to hold the racist accountable. There’s a reason why no black actors have come out publicly to support Pascal.
EXACTLY. He’s only worried about his image and his bottom line. ALWAYS.
Hahahaha monuments men was a financial success lol. It had a fair profit margin. Didn’t put anyone in the hole… you may not have liked it but it made money
If you think monuments men made anything close to a profit you don’t understand anything about film finance
Let’s put the issue to rest: The Monuments Men had a budget of 70M, with about the same amount for P&A.
It ended up grossing 155M worldwide. Which on paper, is a few mill higher than so called ‘Breaking Even’. But there’s no chance in the world it made money with those numbers.
So in summary, and in reality: it lost money.
To follow-up, Monument Men also is making additional money in digital downloads, DVD sales, etc…, So it’s still profitable.
Can’t we just find the profit and loss summary for MM in the hacked files and put this debate to bed entirely?
Monuments Men made a profit….
With creative Hollywood accounting.
Making $155 million worldwide on a $70 million budget is most definitely a profit. Unless they had a ridiculous P&A budget….
Creative Hollywood accounting is used to show a loss on films that make big money. That’s how you avoid paying points to actors and others getting paid on the back end, you avoid a lot of taxes that way too.
Speak the truth. Clooney’s crying email to Pascal as to the failure of the Monument Men and her promising to take care of him is what this is all about. Tit for tat, he is just trying to support his money woman. Anyone that sees him as some kind of super patriot is an idiot. He would have been the last one to see this idiotic Rogan-Franco film that should never have been greenlit by stupid AmyP in a theatre or anywhere else.
What about some concern by Clooney for the theatre owners who due to Sony’s negligence as to paying for IT that works instead of outsourcing it to who knows where IF ANYONE WAS INDEED KILLED ON CHRISTMAS DAY?
What about Clooney addressing the backstabbing and racism and anti-female polices expressed clearly by his PATRON savior AmyP?
What about the Sony current and former employees and actors and writers and all else who now have to fight identity theft without high paid Sony assistance?
Clooney is looking out for himself and AmyP who pays him, not for the American people as he falsely claims to be.
And no one with any IT know how believes this is anything other than AN INSIDE IT JOB BY SOMEONE SONY TERMINATED IN THEIR GREED. NK lacks the ability to do this, they can’t even fire rockets that don’t fizzle and fall far short of their targets.
And SONY IS A JAPANESE COMPANY, a country that is getting closer and closer to NK.
The same racist sexist POV’s expressed over and over. Why not make a movie that serves some greater good other than ego glorification and dollars? It’s not ‘brave’ to make fun of a dictator of a country far away. It’s doesn’t take talent to make fun of and objectify ethnic groups while the white guys are always ‘getting laid’, getting drunk and getting richer and richer. Let me guess, the two white guys in the movie get laid, get drunk, and turn into lovable ‘superheroes’. YAWN
The FBI just confirmed this was done by North Korea. Don’t let being an American cause you to underestimate other countries. That superiority mentality has bitten America in the a$$ many times.
What evidence do you have for that claim?
Maybe not black actors, but black filmmakers have…
http://www.eurweb.com/2014/12/sonys-amy-pascal-will-not-resign-john-singleton-tyler-perry-show-support/
I agree.
Personally I loved Monuments Men…I’ll let you go back to watcEeed dumb and dumber 2 or some other juvenile movie
Tyler Perry called her and offered his support.
I don’t care about Clooney. I don’t care about Sony. I don’t care about Sony’s security. I don’t care about Pascal or her offensive e mails
At this time I care that Americans presenting themselves as artists have been told what they can safely publicly display. At this time I also care that these “artists” folded rather than than stand up for the freedoms we depend on and these “artists” claim to respect.
Why don’t those who are saying Sony is a coward, go risk their lives for these Hollywood actors. The rest of us don’t give a crap. It’s not like our own government forbid us from seeing it. I would understand that. However a corporation, Japanese by the way, made a company decision. End of story.
Why don’t those who are saying Sony is a coward, go risk their lives for these Hollywood actors. The rest of us don’t give a crap. It’s not like our own government forbid us from seeing it. I would understand that. However a corporation, Japanese by the way, made a company decision. End of story.
*petition.
Perhaps Maybe :-)
isn’t this just simple extortion? Sony didn’t pull the movie because of safety concerns. They pulled it to prevent more emails from being released. Besides “Interview” was already getting bad reviews. They’re cutting their losses.
You’re forgetting the little terrorism part.
For decades but mainly after 2001 “terrorism” has been a vague term that seems to cover all sorts of crimes. so far it’s just an attack on a single company. Barking “terrorism” adds a level of drama that might not be warranted.
Terrorism is specifically defined by using “terror” to gain the upper hand in all affairs, political, personal, financial, etc.. how is this not terrorism when they issued threats of “terror” and specifically referenced they would renew the vigor of 9/11 attacks? I fail to see where people are barking terrorism at anything but the correct tree here.
Well I’d definitely call it terrorism. They threatened the lives of people in order to generate feat to prevent an action from being taken. That is, they used fear of death as s deterrent to an action. I’m not really sure how you couldn’t call that terrorism
Pre 9/11, we had terrorism in the UK. You know, people killing each other in the name of religion. For some reason, a lot of Americans saw it as a just (and dare I say, romantic) cause. The sad fact of the matter is that when you get to the root of the problem, it’s all about profiteering of some sort. That anyone can rationalise brutality for profit as a war for freedom exemplifies just how doomed we all are…
Well the 9,7/10 score at imdb.com proves you wrong.
You do realize people are inflating the IMDB rating in order to get Sony to put it out in spite of everything… Just scroll to the bottom of the page for The Interview and read what users are up to.
Actually if you’d actually read this article (or really any article on it) they pulled the movie because there were no Theatres to release it to. All the Theatres pulled out. You can’t distribute a film if there’s no cinemas to distribute it to.
So as an American your okay with censorship? Good movie or bad movie thats by thr by the issue here is that Americans have just bern told by a Dictator what they can cannot watch.
Release The Interview Sony…please dont give in…if you do then they have won.
Sony pulled the movie because no theaters were going to show it, it has nothing to do with preventing more emails from being released.
Put it on DVD. I never buy a DVD, but would buy this one just for the hype.
Also, this whole terrorist threat further brands the baby Dictator for the tyrant he really is.
And which distributor is willing to sell on DVD and take the risk as well if even theatres pulled out?
No, Sony pulled the movie out of safety concerns. The terrorists were threatening to blow up innocent people in theatres.
Doesn’t matter if Sony is Japanese or American. This is an attack on the free world. Nothing wrong with Sony being cowards; civilians should be cowards. It is up to elected governments to take action to defend freedom.
The United States can buy the distribution rights, rent theatres, show the movie, assume the liability, and if it makes any money, give the profit to an appropriate charity. Doesn’t matter if Sony executives sent inappropriate emails or if the movie is lame, the issue is bigger than that now. This is about freedom of speech, of who gets to decide what people are allowed to say or listen to.
My father was a warrior. A fighter pilot in three wars. He taught me to NEVER suffer a bully. If you are threatened and you capitulate you have lost.
However, if you stand your ground three things can happen. The bully can back down…you win. The bully can try and you can prevail…you win. The bully can try and succeed…you lose, but at least you can lose with your honor intact. Two out of three positive outcomes is a 66 percent chance of success. Not bad odds.
Sony folded like a cheap tent.
And my uncle always taught me to hit the bully back no matter what. They might beat you the first time, but if they know you will always fight back, there won’t be a second time because no bully wants to get hit each time they pick a fight.
Man, you are going to get busted for selling wolf tickets without a license.
You are not being oppressed by North Korea. Stop confusing being threatened, annoyed, and exposed with oppression.
very wise man, your father.
Hear, hear!
Regardless of whatever vulnerability we might fear lies in our own network of secured information. why exactly are we at all afraid of NORTH KOREA as an entity? It seems to me that the damage we could do to them far outweighs the most heinous atrocity that could be managed against us as a country in nearly every conceivable fashion. I am left wondering exactly how they would have managed to achieve what they were threatening, in any case…
Here is what I don’t get: How is it that we can take a hit to the WTC and lose thousands of lives in a day and say we will not bow to threats and proceed to go about destructing anything even remotely related to those who would try and intimidate with actual death and destruction, but yet everyone scurries and frets over the power wielded by what ultimately amounts to digital gossip? Have we come so undone by what could be made public that we are more ruled by our secrets than our physical bodies? It is not as though this hacker group somehow gained control over everyone’s palm flower and have the ability to send them to Carousel prematurely or otherwise terminate their lives remotely by triggering a death capsule. This reaction is as though they had the ability to program the theaters that dared to show the film to self destruct rather than actually having to get someone to blow up something with real explosives and I am a little bit skeptical that just because they know how to hack a computer that translates into the ability to make a nuisance of themselves outside of cyber space.
And for that matter, if information is the weapon being utilized to greatest effect, it seems to me that the entire threat of North Korea as a whole is one that could be neutralized with a bit of well aimed propaganda that exposes the Great Ego on High for the mortal being that he is. The entire country could be sunk by creating a wave of critical thinking among the people and then where would they be? There is a reason they have everything all buttoned up and tightly controlled, and that is because it depends on the people supporting the illusion. It’s a whole country living the fable of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” which is why the idea of such a movie is so dangerous to them in the first place. How hard can it be to get some clear minds commenting that the ruler is actually naked?
What am I missing here? How did the specter of North Korea, or even some group acting on their behalf with an efficient bit of malware, ever get enough leverage to make any kind of demands at all? Might even the likes of Anonymous be fit to answer this affront in some way? The cat is already out of the bag at Sony and their system is compromised already – what further damage is even able to be done on that front? Is there some additional layer of intrigue here that I don’t understand?
He’s right. On all counts.
From this point on, studios will be running scripts through a new filter… and it isn’t going to be the sort that encourages out of the box thinking… or edgy fare.
My secret hope is that once the hackers are identified – and the threat of additional danger eliminated – that Sony will then release the film theatrically or via VOD. I personally can’t stomach the thought of outsiders dictating what I can or cannot see.
I think the movie will be released for free on YouTube for the entire world to see. Hopefully will get a billion views. And at least a few chuckles.
I’m with you Sam. Assuming the lawyers wouldn’t block the move so they can get their cut, it wouldbe ironic justice if Sony would announce that they would not enforce their copyrgiht on this film and then somehow some “hackers” leaked the fim to YouTube. Would do far more harm to NKorea than the theatrical release would have.
Is the premise that terrorists can dictate the release date and format of a film’s released somehow better than them releasing what can be released?
In order to neutralize the effect of the film being pulled because of terrorist threats, you have to release it when the threat is still present.
He doesn’t get it either.
I would make a comment but I’m too scared
No one allowed sterling free speech.
And he didn’t threaten anyone.
Weasels.
Sterling had free speech. He said what he wanted and it just didn’t go over well. Free speech does not mean that we should be forced to accept whatever anyone says just because they spoke freely. The KKK and The New Black Panther Party have the right to spout their rhetoric but how many people support their propaganda even though they might support their right to free speech. You can speak freely in this country but that does not mean that everyone will agree with what you have to say. If you are spewing hatred and ignorance and racism then morally minded people will probably find your speech offensive and not support you. It is all relative of course and perhaps you supported what Sterling said – which you also have the right to do.
Exactly. People found the idea of executing a living foreign leader offensive and don’t want anything to do with America spewing that kind of movie politics and trying to make money off of exploitation. You don’t get it.
You only see one side. That’s not the way
people of the world have advanced beyond
such a narrow hatred exploitive manipulation ;
in some a pocket. What’s YOUR NAME let’s all use it and your life in a movie and at the
end you are a crimnal in jail. Now it’s real.
Offensive? To a dictator who is oppressing his own people. I find that funny.
Exactly. Who gives a sht if he’s offended. He starves his own people to keep them in line. If someone steps out of line, he sends the person and his WHOLE FAMILY to brutal prison camps where they are tortured and starved. Starvation is a super effective method of control and he uses it. Fck him. I want there to be documentaries and films and cartoons and newspaper articles and magazine spreads about him him him and how aeful he is.
China does the same thing to its citizens as does Putin. Yet the US does business with both countries. Our escalating issues with Russia probably led to new relations with Cuba. After all, the Cuban missile crisis was about our war with Russian and not Cuba. Better to have Cuba as an ally these days.
“People found the idea of executing a living foreign leader offensive”
Really?
Just like they heaped praise on a movie about the killing of President George W. Bush? (“The Death of a President”)
Just like they cheered a movie about the killing of British Prime Minister Tony Blair? (“Ghost Writer”)
Ha ha.
The hypocrisy is delicious
It may be offensive to some, while funny to others. The point is that the writers, directors and producers have a right in the U.S. to make this film. It’s protected. If North Korea doesn’t like the film, then they can ban it from their country not ours.
Death of a President features the assassination of a standing American President. You didn’t have some American government agency doing anything to shut down the production or prevent it from coming out.
You don’t get it. Government-sponsored Censorship is inherently evil. There is no other side.
The pink panther.
Sterling was a white guy making racist comments. Hollywood is all about claiming to hate racist speak…unless it’s them..and it’s discovered in hacked emails. THIS is why they are upset. First amendment? Doesn’t apply to them. Most of Hollywood hates the Constitution.
“The Constitution is just a goddamn piece of paper!” — George W. Bush
Or Mel Gibson. Remember Pascal was one of Gibson’s biggest critics and even went so far as to tell the Los Angeles Times at the time,”It’s incredibly disappointing that somebody of his stature would speak out that way, especially at this sensitive time.” Rather than hold her accountable as she did of Gibson, we have all these actors (white) trying to sweep Hollywood’s race problem under the rug. Notice Clooney and others are deflecting from the true issue (Hollywood’s race problem) with this “big bad North Korea” nonsense.
Wow- really? Way to miss the Forrest gazing at those trees.
What is a forest without trees?
I’m the guy that discusses the topic at hand; you must be the other guy.
He said what he wanted to say. People just didn’t like what they heard.
“Forget the hacking part of it. You have someone threaten to blow up buildings and all of a sudden, everybody has to bow down.”
THANK YOU! Stop calling them hackers. Call them TERRORISTS!
easily the same and easily demonstrated, it’s done all the time. what’s that group of hackers that for years threatened to and did hack if their demands were not met. where have you been? when done by a country, well, that’s war, isn’t it?
What we should remember is the Sony home office is in Japan. Japan has its own culture and its own spotty history with North Korea.
But they didn’t attack the electronics division in Japan, they hit the entertainment unit in Culver City
But in the end the head office, and rumor has it, the Japanese government, ordered Kaz Hirai (head of all of the divisions of Sony) to give email notes to Amy Pascal about altering the head explosions in The Interview. This correspondence is available online, as it was hacked. Parent corporation’s involvement in SPE was unprecedented. So, the head office in Japan is actually calling the shots on this. I would guess that they pulled the screenings.
Why is no one asking the obvious question? What else did the hackers have that scares Sony so much they pulled the movie?
Becasue the rest of us know that if it were just about information leaking, The Interview would be coming to a theater near you on Christmas Day. The hack is a secondary story to the fact that terrorists said they would blow up movie theaters showing a film they don’t like. That is where the real threats came in.
This is pure speculation. The Department of Homeland Security came right out and said there was no credible threat. The most senior (and likely damaging) emails have been leaked, but Sony still capitulated. There’s something else at play here.
What’s going on here is people freaking themselves out over nothing, movie theaters not wanting to risk cutting into their business because frightened idiots might stay home, and Sony pulling the movie for the insurance payout because no one was going to show it anyway and they would have taken a bath.
Sony’s actions are the only ones that make logical sense, really. The responses of the greedy theater owners and the “But what if it’s real?” idiots are the ones that have me shaking my head.
Remember that Sony was showing ads for The Interview continuously up until a couple of days ago. They weren’t concerned at all until the moronic media started whipping everyone up into a terrified lather over a vague threat that probably came from some 14-year old 4Chan kid in his mom’s basement.
I mean, really. North Korean terrorist cells in the United States? It’s just not a thing, and anyone with half a brain would know that.
No there isn’t. The major theater chains withdrew from showing the movie. None of them had any emails that they were worried about leaking. They were just (overly) panicked about some vague threat about “9/11” happening at one of their theaters.
It is/was straight up terrorism — using the threat of mass murder to get your way.
What the hell are you talking about? Sony even agreed they didn’t feel it was a credible threat. Are you all seriously so set on finding some conspiracy to hide more internal secrets that you ignore the FACTS that all of their Theatres stated they wouldn’t show the film?? Of course Sony would pull the film after that. They can’t distribute a film that doesn’t have any place to go!
Studios do it all the time. It’s called “straight to video”
The theaters considered it a credible enough threato disregard DHS.
The DPHS said what ? and we are to believe what a “homeland” spy agency says ?
We are being controlled and media is being dictated to us… by a sh@# with a fast internet connection.
I totally agree with you. There is something much more sinister going on. I’m a former Sony employee, so I’m glad they canceled the damn move. Who cares?
So what about being a Sony employee makes you think it’s ok for a dictatorship to enact acts of censorship?
I guess if it’s corporate facism, some of it rubbed off on you.
They didn’t pull the movie. No theater company wants the liability IF something tragic happens at one of their theaters.
Mr. Clooney is absolutely spot on. This is huge and in a very real way threatens our way of life. What we do next is more important than any decisions facing the world today because, as he says, this could affect any one company, any person, industry or country. Let’s help by not engaging with the media’s attempt to dangle gossip about studio heads or actors. We must be stronger and more true than that.
Yes
Coward….
Forget Hollywood, George. What a lost cause. Circulate the petition for AMERICA to sign. We will sign it!
Also, get to work on a comedy that savagely lampoons the asshats of North Korea. Distribute it on Netflix or Amazon. I’ll watch that!
i think America WAS going to sign this petition with every ticket they purchased for this movie on Christmas if only to tell lil kim that he can go f*** himself!
Amen
I don’t sign many petitions but I would absolutely sign this one with both my name and a movie ticket in my hand! Please George, put this petition out for real Americans to sign who aren’t afraid of a Paper Tiger whose more hell bent on starving his own people than ANY possibility of reaching into the heartland to do ANY damage to a theater showing this movie.
Let’s for one second assume North Korea could, in it’s WILDEST fantasy, cause some “event” at a movie theater that was proved beyond any doubt as carried out by North Korea, what do you think the world reaction to THAT would be? Our cyber-unit would be unleashed to it’s fullest potential making any Israeli attack on Iran look like child’s play incapacitating first it’s nuclear capability followed by physical destruction of it’s infrastructure and then EVERY meager support system it may have. We’ve gone to war over much, MUCH less… Iraq, anyone?? (And please, don’t even try to make the pathetic case that Iraq had a gosh darn thing to do with 9/11…)
Netflix and amazon would never run it. They’re too scared now.
Thank you George for your guts. It is interesting that these big wigs would not sign George’s petition when they previously signed a petition in support of Israel and collectively chastised Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardiem when they accused Israel of genocide. Apparently they have no problem attaching their names to some petitions. This hacking was an act of terrorism the same as the acts in the Middle East. I think the movie was stupid to make but the studios and Hollywood should stand beside Sony in a show of support.
Mr. Fleming, Mr. Clooney and Mr. Lourde:
I would have happily signed the petition. I realize that I am not the head of studio or network, I run a small TV Awards Consulting business and have done publicity throughout my 30 year career.
As a publicist, here’s an idea – How about issuing this challenge to all the movie studios, distributors, production companies, television networks and streaming sites – Let’s put THE INTERVIEW out, simultaneously in theaters on TV, streaming sites – and even radio. If the theaters are empty – oh well, if everyone turns off their TVs, so be it – but we, as an industry and country will have spoken, loudly and in one voice
As I see it, that joint action is the only way to assure individuals in this country and the rest of the world that our freedom of speech and artistic expression is the most important right we have, and no one can take it away from us, not ever, no matter what!
Where is the solidarity and patriotism that Hollywood showed so strongly during WW 2 when the films helped to uphold morale and taught us those lessons about freedom? Where are those courageous leaders today?
Freedom is NOT just another word for nothing left to lose and we have so much on the line. Please send me your petition, I will be proud to be the third signature.
At first I thought you were a shameless self promoter and out of your mind. But by the end of your post I was totally on board. If they could coordinate that, it would be awesome. Well done.
Right on, and I second your idea. Hoping someone in this industry has the guts to start the ball rolling. I know my signature is not as important as the others you approached but I would sign in a minute, with my contact information in defiance to these terrorists.
Put this movie out and I WILL SEE IT
Release it for free, like your twelve bucks is going to make a difference…..
I’m not at all involved with the movie industry, other then being a fan of great films since i was a child. As a fan i would love to sign Mr Clooney’s petition. And i think this idea of realeasing the movie everywhere at the same time is absolutely the most brilliant idea i have ever heard. Terrorism only works if people live their live in terror. As a nation we need to all stand together and scream “we will not bow down. We will not live in fear. We will not give up our freedom because some anonymous cowards threatened us. Great men and women have been putting their lives on the line for thousands of years for freedom….I guess it’s our turn now. I don’t know about you but i would rather fucking die then give up an inch of my freedom. “Give me liberty or give me death”
Where do I sign?
I will sign the petition but I have no interest in seeing the movie. I do not support the film’s message though I do support the filmmakers right to produce it. I thought the movie’s plot was stupid before the hacking event but that is my opinion.
Appears you are seeking work to market a dumb film that has already garnered more ad buys worldwide than the money the studio spent to market.
Its a chess game and the hackers won. Even if they couldnt pull off a 9/11 style attack at a screening, there’s enough nutty people in cyberspace that someone could attack people in a theater just to get media attention.Look at what happened in NY when that guy tried to kill cops with an axe, or what happened at the Dark Knight Rises screening. Clooney is dead on – something happens at a theater, someone is getting sued back to the stone age. The outcry is Hollywood is greedy and could care less about public safety. Hollywood backs down and doesn’t release the movie, the outcry is they’re cowards. Checkmate.
checkmate is right. pretty smart on n koreas part I must say.
Any killing at a theater should have been immediately considered an act of war. Don’t care if it was an NK operative or a loon, both would have been effectively “commanded” by NK to make an attack.
Jesus Christ, this man makes some incredibly salient points here. I hope he keeps applying pressure to the right people (the Administration) to actually send a message to the perpetrators that this will not be tolerated.
Why not Mohammed rather than Jesus Christ as your opening remark?
Great point, Patrice73.
Cause he didn’t want to get blown up
because he must be a christian? i’m pagan and i say oh my goddess instead of oh my god.. gosh he can express himself with the names he wants.
His idea to distribute movies online is a good one. We’re already headed there for anything interesting or artistically valuable anyway because theatrical movies are all pitched to the global audience, and even before this debacle, there was a great deal of censorship as to what is allowed to compete globally, namely just fantastical scenarios of superheroes, aliens, elves, vampires…anything but dealing with the real world because somebody is bound to get cheesed off about it (and now you know why the multiplex will be dominated by DC and Marvel forever after.)
But Netflix and Amazon show much more interesting stuff anyway, either their own or licensed, so I’ve pretty much given up on the multiplex, this is just the nail in the coffin. Hollywood might be too scared to even show Team America: World Police now, but it’s showing at my house tonight on Netflix streaming. (No slight intended to Mr. Clooney who comes in for some satire in that fine film.)
Google should buy the rights and place it in YouTube for free, let’s see them try and go after Skynet, I mean Google
Regarding the discussion with George Clooney. He hit the nail on the head early in the exchange. It’s not that Americans are getting soft, it’s that America is such a litigious society. This is why theaters pulled back after receiving terrorists threats. If a theater runs the movie – and something does happen – they will likely face a class action suit on behalf of any victims.
If you want to do some soul searching you probably should start there.
Will lawsuits work if people willingly, knowing in advance the threats that have been made, go to a theater showing this film?
Not if they are made to sign some sort of waiver upon entering the cinema. But if they don’t they could claim they knew nothing of the Korean threats.
Clooney you sanctimonious bastard. Like Hollywood is some bastion of free speech. Give me a break. As long as Hollywood can peddle their corrosive viewpoints then he is fine, but if a blogger wants to rehash some leaked e-mails then he gets his panties all in a bunch.
If anyone really thinks that North Korea is behind this, I have a bridge to sell you. Just like the KONY video. This may have been state sponsored, but if the US and Saudi Arabia are going after Russia’s #1 export, why shouldn’t Russia attack ours, the media empires?
Cloony supports web censorship with SOPA, so he is really only pro free speech if it harms an institution that he is against. George, that isn’t free speech, it is fascism. That is what Clooney and his kind are all about. Registrations for state approved journalist, and an internet that serves the progressive agenda.
I have an idea, why doesn’t SONY admit their network was not secure, and work to harden it?
How can somebody be so wrong about every facet of this story? Oh right, he is a Hollywood liberal with “righteous” indignation.
There is a part of me that thinks that somewhere there is a clever press agent laughing at all the free publicity this has gotten for a lame movie.
I agree with you on the lame movie part.
So, did your meds wear off just now or earlier this week?
Hahahaha
good one
but he has a side
This made me laugh so hard because I thought the same thing. What a deranged person!
You are a complete idiot and easily the most ignorant asshole I’ve ever seen on this site. Talk about sanctimonious. You twisted everything about Clooney and tried to make it sound insightful and important. It wasn’t. And I doubt you’re even capable of offering something important or insightful. You just sound like… well, an angry and pathetic human being. Pointing his finger at a liberal because it just galls him to see someone like Clooney making sense and having the balls to speak the truth. Go back to the hole you crawled out of, asshole!
It’s just funny to see a longtime anti-American crank like Clooney suddenly decide it’s time to stand up against international communist terrorist thuggery.
Oh NOW he’s concerned! Ha ha.
If the North Koreans had attacked any other facet of American society, like… say… the oil industry… Clooney would be right there on the terrorists’ side.
But Hollywood? Quelle Horreur!
This seems more like a conflict between ISIS and Al Qaeda.
On substance, of course, Clooney is right but he has zero credibility on this.
Besides, Rob Lowe already said it better and more succinctly when he tweeted “Hollywood has done Neville Chamberlain proud today.”
Josh: By using the “A” word (or the “F” word, the “S” word, or other vulgarities), you cheapen your post. You sound like a hyperventilating fourteen year old.
Your post can be as lucid, intelligent, logical, and insightful as any great thinker, but when you post with vulgarities; I scroll right by!
NO ONE in my “real” world speaks with that vocabulary and I refuse to acknowledge it here! If you use this kind of language at home or at work, you are creating a “hostile environment” and you should be taken to task. If you are only using these terms here, then you ARE a hyperventilating teen.
blah blah blah
Nice ad hominem rant. That is what lefties do, they try to shout down their opponents. Here is a hint, try using an argument, not an insult.
what gutter did you crawl out of this morning?
CeeCee, you’re kinda funny. I think you should definitely try for your GED this next year. Or get educated as to what is actually going on within the industry. None of your points make a lick of sense. Zilch.
You’re spouting utter nonsense here.
Remember…Clooney blamed a youtube video for Benghazi and lamented the first amendment for all then, too. HE’s a self absorbed elitist. I’m over the whole “My dad was a news guy”, too. Yeah…in the 50’s. We have a state run media now, George, no thanks to your politics. STFU.
CeeBee, About 15 years ago my computer expert friend could make an acceptable fake ID card for any country in the world, using any name or birth date. Changing criminal records anywhere was just as easy. So how do you think Sony or any other company in the world can actually block skilled hackers?
Before the US invasion of Iraq, comedy geniuses Zucker Abrams Zucker used a Saddam Hussein look-a-like as fodder for a few sub-plots. Protesters questioned ZAZ political agenda and motivations, as well as implied disrespect of a rivals’ head of state. They were overruled in the world of public opinion, by those admiring the overwhelming talent of such brilliant
writers and creators.
davidarochelle, How do we block the NSA? They are the most skilled hackers… Oh I know, more government. That’ll keep ya real safe. And while they hack you for your safety, they can make it look like it came from any country in the world.
O think this has Russia written all over it. Anyone in the hacker subculture know about the talents of Russians on computers. You can’t create that sorry of talent easily. This doesn’t look like north Korea at all to other hackers. Russia certainly though.
Cool the ‘ol Russian hacker stereotype. This idea’s fanciful and very likely false, but it’s good to see 2002’s cliches are still in the minds of some.
Am I the only one here that believes this “hack” originated on the inside and that it’s just a little wee too coincidental that 1) Clooney’s about to make a movie about hackers and that 2) Clooney’s email to Pascal elluded to hacking and that 3) Clooney’s basically failed Monuments Men coincided with his “wife’s” plight to save the Elgin Marbles and that 4) Clooney’s own marriage/wedding seemed more of a publicity stunt, tauted out to every media outlet that the “son of a newsman” who avowed to never marry again was no suddenly “in love” with a gal he’s more often than not photographed with while wearing Casamigos t-shirts to obviously promote his new tequila which was unveiled early 2014? This same man who told the Screen Actors Guild members, “We’ll protect you” while urging the removal of their right to strike for better wages while kowtowing to AFTRA to save news reporters’ pensions at the expense of the working class actor? Same man who’s got media in his back pocket and is a shameless self-promoter?
While it may be true we shall not bow down to foreign threats to promote censorship, why on earth would anyone taunt a ruthless despot with assassination theatrics in a cornball movie with deadbeat actors? Please, George … wipe the sh#t stain off the tip of your nose and SHUT UP ALREADY!!! People are sick of hearing from you and about you, you self-serving LIAR!
NO people aren’t tired at all, YOU are tired of him. How he conducts his business is NONE of your business. Get a life that will increase your self esteem and decrease your anger.
Personally I cannot stand that George Clooney, but he is almost 100% correct on this matter!!!!
His opinion on SOPA has no bearing on whether his assertion is correct, even if he is hypocritical.
And by what logic does Sony’s security incompetence give NK a pass? Are you ok with assault of other forms if the victim didn’t set up a perfect defense?
i disagreed that the sony executives are cowards and i really disagree with anyone verbally or otherwise putting down Clooney. We have our opinions but calling people a “bastard” or someone else a coward is not exactly being brave, unless you try doing it in their face and they are bigger than you, unless people get their jollies by picking on only those who cannot fight back. Now if
you want to apply that to the leader of North Korea he didn’t take responsibility so he thinks we cannot fight back. He is the one who started this, not sony executives, President Obama, even Russ Limbo or any American. Clooney has a right to be outraged but let’s give the credit to who started this.
Good on him for having the courage to address the real issues at play here
This is lovely chest-beating material but none of the real hackers I know, not one, actually believes this was done by North Korea. And Sony is not an American company, even if it bought its way into Hollywood.
Sony has previously been hacked more than once by hacker crews led by Hector Monsegur, aka Sabu. He has been working with the FBI for a couple of years now. Should the White House wish to drum up fear of a foreign foe and not damage any actual American companies in the process, well, it would be trivial for Sabu and the FBI to pull this off.
All speculation of course, but then so is the attribution to supernaturally talented North Korean hackers.
Everyone should just quit talking about this
it’s promoting to the world what a bunch of
idiots work in the American film business.
It’s not fair to the real
talentgenius’ producing A grade films distributed around the world.
they have to get rid of Seth Rogan.
Of all the concerns this incident raises, revealing what kind of hypocrites and idiots work in Hollywood should be at the absolute bottom.
Clooney could have cajoled everybody into signing his petition if he’d also asked them shoot a silly video of them dumping a bucket of ice over their heads and posting it to Youtube.
But seriously, there’s nothing new going on here. Before WWII, before we went to war with Germany, the geniuses that run Hollywood fell all over themselves trying NOT to offend Hitler and Germany because they didn’t want to shut off the revenue from European distribution. There’s a book about this called “The Collaboration” at at this link:
http://amzn.to/1w4nWOZ
So cancelling the release of “The Interview” is nothing new for Hollywood.
Hollywood has never been any kind of grand bastion of free speech. It’s a bunch of sociopathic, greedy, talentless movie executives arguing over who gets the last nickel on the table. That’s all it ever has been and all it ever will be.
Correct. Clooney and company are actually against free speech if it violates political correctness.
Clooney and Company arent against free speech mate, they r the on’es who do not want any kind of conflict, imagine if NK does gets serious with it’s threats, who would bare the consequences? You? Obama? or the People who are so yearn about the freedom of speech, think about it, North Koreans are crazy about the respect of their leaders, their threats should be taken seriously, they have nothing to loose, and People who have nothing to loose are far more dangerous than anyone.
Believe it or not, we live in this world and we should respect everyone. We shouldn’t do such an acts that can provoke Countries into war. Around 50-70 Million were killed in WW2 and back than we did not had such an advance weaponry, but imagine if the war has been raged by NK because of one stupid movie how many will suffer? What is more important peace? or Freedom of speech?
Freedom is always more important
Let’s see Hollywood, I bet you can make a boatload of money writing the next Godzilla movie. Isis with Ebola -vs- Godzilla & Mothra….cast a few A listers…Let’s see what happens.