Leaked emails from Sony Pictures reveal a racially insensitive conversation between the studio’s chair Amy Pascal and Sony producer Scott Rudin. In the emails, obtained by Buzzfeed, the pair discuss films they believe President Barack Obama would find entertaining, but readers of their conversation may find their suggestions to be inappropriate.
“Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?” Pascal wrote.
Rudin replied: “12 YEARS [a slave]”
Rudin then added other films starring Black people to his list of films the president might enjoy.
“Or the butler. Or think like a man?” he wrote. “Ride-along. I bet he likes Kevin Hart.”
After the emails were made public, Rudin issued an apology through Deadline.com saying his remarks “were meant only to be funny.”
“I made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny, but in the cold light of day, they are in fact thoughtless and insensitive—not funny at all,” he told Deadline. “To anybody I’ve offended, I’m profoundly and deeply sorry, and I regret and apologize for any injury they might have caused.”
Pascal also published an apology in Variety.
“The content of my emails were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am,” she said. “Although this was a private communication that was stolen, I accept full responsibility for what I wrote and apologize to everyone who was offended.”
What do you think? Racially sensitive or just two people joking around?