Amy Pascal at Women in the World Conference
CHASING AMY
Amy Pascal has finally spoken out on her recent departure from Sony in the aftermath of the e-mail hacking scandal.
Variety dishes up details on the candid interview that took place between the embattled studio executive and journalist Tina Brown at yesterday's Women in the World conference in San Francisco.
"All the women here are doing incredible things in this world," said Pascal, who officially stepped down from her duties as Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairperson last week. "All I did was get fired."
Added Pascal: "Everyone knows everything about me. What am I doing here?"
When Brown gently countered by saying, "None of us can imagine…," Pascal cut in by telling her, "No, you cannot."
To recap briefly: Pascal was vilified publicly in late December after a cyberattack, which U.S. investigators are blaming on North Korea, was launched against Sony in retaliation for producing The Interview, a comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco as a producer-TV host team conscripted to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
During the weeks to follow, the hackers released thousands of internal Sony e-mails, including a series of Pascal's personal messages to veteran producer Scott Rudin and other Sony executives.
In the most contentious email exchange, Pascal talked about attending a fundraiser for U.S. President Barack Obama and asked Rudin, "Should I ask him if he like DJANGO?" (referring to the film Django Unchained).
In yesterday's interview, Brown brought up the Obama e-mail at the front end of the conversation by saying, "They accused you of being racist…"
Pascal's response: "It was horrible, it was horrible… As a woman, what I did was control how everybody felt about themselves and about me…and there was this horrible moment when I realized there was absolutely nothing I could do whether I'd hurt people, whether I'd betrayed people."
You can watch the Pascal interview in its entirety here.
During the course of the far-ranging conversation, Brown also asked Pascal to recall the moment when she realized her e-mails would be made public.
"I ran this company and I had to worry about everybody who was really scared," she said. "People were really scared…But nagging in the back of my mind, I kept calling [IT] and being, like, 'They don't have our e-mails, tell me they don't have our e-mails. But then they did. That was a bad moment. And you know what you write in e-mails."
As for lessons learned from her humiliating public exposure, Pascal said the incident has taught her how to better relate to people.
"You should always say exactly what you think directly to people all the time," she said. "In the moment, the first time."
And for Pascal, the hacking imbroglio appears to have a happy ending, at least in terms of her future employment.
Earlier this week, Sony announced that Pascal will lead the studio's producing team for the Spider-Man film franchise – Sony's most lucrative movie brand with nearly $4-billion in box-office revenue – and is expected to oversee the studio's upcoming all-female Ghostbusters reboot.
In Hollywood circles, that's called landing on your feet.
NEW MUSIC
Spice Girls fans now have the soundtrack to rewind the clock to the group's glory days. On Wednesday, four previously-unreleased Spice Girls songs from their 2000 album Forever were leaked online by parties unknown. The songs, titled Pain Proof, Right Back At Ya, A Day in Your Life and If It's Loving on Your Mind, were recorded after original member Geri Halliwell left the band to pursue a solo career. Formed in 1994, the Spice Girls sold more than 85-million records worldwide before splitting up in late 2000. The group reformed briefly in 2007 for a world tour.
Source: Daily Beast
LOVE BLOOMS
Have you done your Valentine's Day shopping yet? According to a new survey conducted by Wal-Mart Canada, the average Canadian will spend $177 on presents for their special someone this February 14. The survey also revealed that the most popular gifts will be candy (51 per cent), followed by greeting cards (34 per cent), apparel and footwear (27 per cent), toys (14 per cent) and flowers (13 per cent). In a separate survey conducted by the U.S. National Retail Federation, it was revealed that the average American will spent $142 (U.S.) on gifts this Valentine's Day.
Source: Canada News Wire