Amy Pascal & Scott Rudin: Hollywood Heavyweight's Racist E-mails Offer Glimpse of Why Color Barrier Persists in Film Industry

Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal in happier times.

Sony Pictures Entertainment Chief Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin are widely regarded as two of the most powerful figures in the film industry.

But after Buzzfeed released excerpts of a November 2013 e-mail exchange between the two in which they openly mock President Obama's race, both are now under the harsh glare of the opposite side of the media spotlight.

If the massive corporate headache created by the November 24th hack into Sony Pictures database (and the subsequent release of volumes of sensitive internal correspondence and information) was like a bad dream for execs of the film studio; now it's turned into a PR nightmare.

According to Hollywood Reporter, Pascal was set to attend what she described in one of her e-mails to Rudin as a "stupid" Democratic fund raising breakfast hosted by DreamWorks heavy Jeffrey Katzenberg, so she decided to e-mail Rudin and ask for suggestions on what to ask President Obama at the event.

After Rudin jokingly suggested she ask Obama if he would "like to finance some movies", Pascal replied, "I doubt it. Should I ask him if he liked 'Django' (Unchained)?"

And it just got increasingly juvenile, trite and stupid after that, with both hypocritical limousine liberals acting like a couple of dim-witted 9th grade bigots as they joke about the kinds of movies the president would like; including '12 Years a Slave', 'The Butler' and 'Think Like a Man'.

At one point Rudin suggested, "I bet he likes Kevin Hart." 

The story has blown up on social media and both Rudin and Pascal have released their obligatory media mea culpas which were probably written by some nervous hack from Sony's PR department.

Pascal's statement said in part, "the content of my e-mails to Scott were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am," 

Actually they DO reflect who she is, catching the powerful Hollywood executive during a private moment when she thought no one would read what she wrote; instead of at some charity event with that phony plastic smirk on her face.

British protesters hold a "die-in" in honor of Eric Garner in a London mall.

The sad part of this exchange (besides the fact that it's not even funny) is that it comes at a critical  moment when the nation and the world are expressing outrage over the dehumanizing way in which some members of law enforcement treat men of color.

Over 76 people were arrested at a London shopping mall after holding a "die-in" (pictured left) to protest the Eric Garner decision.

Pascal and Rudin's comments about President Obama reflect the same kind of callous, simplistic, narrow-minded perception of African-Americans demonstrated by those police officers who disproportionately use excessive or deadly force against black people simply because of the color of their skin.

It's insulting for Pascal and Rudin to even jokingly suggest that black people's appreciation for cinema is limited to "black" films.

Attitudes like Pascal and Rudin's are one of the major reasons scripts with black characters or based on African-American stories, issues or themes have a difficult time being greenlit and funded within Hollywood.

Strides have certainly been made with films like director Steve McQueen's 'Twelve Years a Slave' or Lee Daniel's 'The Butler' - but white producers like Brad Pitt had to use their clout to get McQueen's picture made; even though McQueen is highly talented, critically praised and the film was a box office success.

Talented African-American director Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed the excellent 2008 film, 'The Secret Life of Bees'. As she noted in an interview with Rebecca Ford in the November 21st issue of Hollywood Reporter, getting films made with people of color as the leads, "was maddening. The fact that it was two people of color in the leads, it was unfortunate to hear: 'We don't know how to sell this.' Being a black woman (director), you hear that all the time, and you never get used to it."

When asked about the obstacles she faces as a black woman in Hollywood, Prince-Bythewood said: 
"I could work all the time if I wanted, but I want to do my own stuff. So what's discriminated against is what I focus on: people of color, and specifically women. People (in Hollywood) aren't trying to make those films."

After reading the leaked e-mails between Pascal and Rudin, we can certainly understand why.

The online media backlash against Pascal and Rudin is already starting.

In response to news of the e-mails, showrunner/writer Shonda Rhimes ('Grey's Anatomy', 'Scandal' and 'How to Get Away With Murder') Tweeted that the e-mail exchange needs to be called "racist" and not "racially insensitive."

Actor Kevin Hart has already released a statement on Instagram responding to another e-mail between Pascal and another Sony producer calling Hart a "whore" for asking for additional compensation from Sony for asking him to promote his movie on his social media platforms - and for suggesting that President Obama would like him because he's black.

But don't think black folk are the only ones offended by the release of the hacked e-mails from Sony either.

Rudin is notorious for being one of the most difficult film producers to work for because of his abrasive, obnoxious personality and the way he treats people. It may be awhile before the 'Moneyball' producer gets to work with actor/producer Brad Pitt again after calling Pitt's wife, actress/director Angelina Jolie, a "minimally talented spoiled brat" in a leaked e-mail with director David Fincher.

(Minimally talented? Did he see Jolie in the movie 'Salt' or 'The Changeling'?)

I wonder how Pascal and Rudin would react if a black film executive suggested they would only like films like 'Exodus', 'Yentl' of 'Schindler's List' simply because they're both Jewish?

They'd find the conclusion equally prejudiced, offensive and ignorant - which is exactly how millions of people now perceive them both.

Frankly, if Amy Pascal had anything to do with the leaked Sony suggestion that execs actually considered combining the 'Men in Black' films with the two lead characters (played by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) from '21 Jump Street', then she's even dumber than those offensive e-mails make her out to be.

Can a Sister Get a Break? Rihanna & Shonda Rhimes Wrestle With Big Media

Chris Brown's erie tattoo (L) Rihanna after being beaten by Brown in '09 (R) 

With flat wage growth, a hiring rate that is steadily inching up but still sluggish and millions of people chronically under-employed or stuck in jobs that don't pay living wages, the lingering after affects of the Great Recession are making these tough times for many average working class people in the US.

But Department of Labor statistics released two weeks ago show that black American women are a  particularly hard hit demographic when it comes to economic recovery.

The study shows that the unemployment rate amongst black women remains high at 10.6% - that hasn't changed since the same period 12 months ago. Compare that to the overall unemployment rate which has dipped to 6.2%. One reason?

The study suggests that as a percentage of employees, women of color were over represented in federal, state and local municipal jobs - so when Republican lawmakers began slashing government jobs across the nation, black women suffered disproportionately. The reality is that many working class sisters are finding it much more difficult to get back into the workforce; much more so than their white, Hispanic or Asian counterparts. Don't look for that on the Tea Party's agenda, it doesn't even seem to be on the Democratic Party's radar at the moment. 

Last week the media was also tough on some high profile black women at the top of the economic scale too.
 
The Website Color of Change.org launched an online petition demanding that the New York Times retract a controversial Op-Ed piece written by Alessandra Stanley that took highly successful television producer/writer Shonda Rhimes to task for writing characters that are "angry black women".

Rhimes is best known for television shows like Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal featuring strong female characters who are confident and outspoken, but also multidimensional, sensitive and compassionate. If Stanley had watched more than say, five episodes of Grey's Anatomy, she would realize Rhimes' characters are ethnically diverse and ALL of them deliver opinionated rants on a range of topics at various times - but only the black female characters are "angry"? Hmmm.

Rhimes took to Twitter on Friday to deconstruct Stanley's arguments in typically eloquent fashion and created something of an online backlash against Stanley, who obviously picked the wrong target and got called out for a sloppily-written Op-Ed.

Speaking of highly publicized Twitter responses, singer Rihanna also took to Twitter to express her anger at CBS for pulling the Jay-Z song "Run This Town", which features Rihanna's vocals, from the television intro for its Thursday Night Football broadcast.

The media dust-up began the week before last when CBS decided to pull the intro in light of the public outcry over the release of the elevator footage of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancé in the face.

CBS pulled "Run This Town" from the televised intro prior to the September 11th national broadcast of the Baltimore Ravens - Pittsburgh Steelers game and replaced it with different theme music. Given that Ray Rice was the Ravens starting running back before he was suspended indefinitely by the NFL, the CBS decision to pull the song does make sense because of the potential risk to the brand.

The possibility of unforeseen media blowback from associating both the CBS and NFL brands (and their advertisers) with a celebrity who was herself a highly-publicized victim of domestic abuse could have very easily been taken in the wrong way and had unintended consequences.

While I respect Rihanna as an artist, global fame and stardom came to her at a very young age.

She's been ensconced within a retinue of managers, lawyers, handlers and publicists
(her own family has complained publicly of not being able to contact her at times) for years, so I'm not sure she actually realizes just how deeply shocked many people were by her decision to rekindle her relationship with Chris Brown in 2009 not long after the vicious beating he gave her. She also reunited with him again in 2011.

While one might certainly express a degree of admiration for her capacity to forgive someone as emotionally disturbed as Chris Brown, many people ultimately viewed her choice as immature and foolish; one reflective of an almost juvenile determination to date a "bad boy" and "fix him".

Rhihanna didn't catch heat because she tried to make her relationship with Chris Brown work, but because she came off as young and dangerously uninformed on the realities of domestic abuse.

Her decision flew in the face of volumes of credible data on the patterns of domestic abuse; one in four women has been a victim. She seemed unaware of the four phases of domestic abuse as described by Lenore Walker in 'The Dynamics of Domestic Violence - The Cycle of Violence' .

As documented on the Family and Child Abuse Prevention Center Website, Phase 3 follows the actual physical violence that takes place in Phase 2 and is known as the "Honeymoon Phase" where the abuser expresses deep remorse, apologizes profusely and:

"Many abusers will buy gifts, flowers, etc. so that the victim will forgive the abuse. Oftentimes the abuser will promise to go into treatment voluntarily, that the violence will never occur again, and that he or she will "Change"." 

I read that quote and think back to the famous photos of her and Brown jet-skiing around Florida together not long after he'd pummeled her; look at the picture above, would you even consider going jet-skiing with some guy who did that to you?

Personally I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for Rihanna to be put into the position where she's still having to deal with the repercussions of being a victim of domestic abuse five years after her violent encounter with Brown.

But the reality is that she is also dealing with the repercussions of the message that her choice to reunite with Chris Brown sent to the public. On one hand she remains defiant about wanting her personal life to remain private. Yet, look at any issue of Rolling Stone in the past couple years.

I'm a subscriber and I can tell you that more often than not, the "Random Notes" section which features color photos of famous musicians, has a photo of Rhihanna in a swim-suit with a drink in her hand hanging out in Ibiza or some other exclusive sunny vacation spot hanging out.

For instance, look at page 34 of the September 25th issue of RS with Taylor Swift on the cover. There's Rhihanna (with a drink in her hand...) floating in the waters off the island of Ponza, Italy celebrating the end of her Monster Tour. The photo caption reads: "RiRi and her entourage snorkeled in old pirate caves on the island of Ponza."

Now I'm not judging her personal life at all. If Rihanna wants to party on a yacht off Monaco with her friends, hey more power to her. She's a successful adult artist who's entitled to recreational down time and she can do with her time and money whatever she wants. 

But you don't get to saturate the media with images of yourself to promote your career as an entertainer then complain about the public prying into your private life.

When CBS pulled the song from their national prime time broadcast, they were just trying to be sensitive to the issue of domestic abuse, because they couldn't predict how the public would react to Rihanna's voice promoting a game involving the Baltimore Ravens with video of Ray Rice punching his fiance in the face making headlines and overshadowing the game itself.

The images of Rihanna's beautiful face all bruised, battered and swollen after Chris Brown attacked her are stuck in the public sub-conscious; like it or not she always WILL be linked to the issue of domestic abuse.

I can understand Rihanna being angry at CBS for having distanced themselves from the trauma she suffered. But maybe she should remember that domestic abuse affects millions of people, and many of those people simply still have a hard time understanding why anyone would willingly go back into a relationship with someone who would hit, and bite you like that.

And then get a tattoo of the photo of what he did drawn on his neck? I don't even want to know what that is about.

Can Rihanna really blame CBS for not wanting any part of that? I don't think so; her being a victim of Brown's violence wasn't her fault but it certainly wasn't CBS's decision for her to get back in a relationship with him either.

Colorful Cast Change at SNL - Harvard Lampoon's First Black President

Kenan Thompson as Maya Angelou - Courtesy of NBC/SNL

There's arguably quite a ways to go in terms of the overall diversity in casting for film and television roles.

But despite a lag in behind-the-scenes writing and production job opportunities for people of color in the entertainment industry, there have still been some noticeably positive gains for African-American women in popular entertainment and comedy in 2013 - both in front and behind the camera.

ABC's 'Scandal' is one of the hottest shows on television, written and produced by African-American show runner Shonda Rhimes (who also created 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Private Practice', both ratings and critical hits for ABC) and stars a talented and beautiful black actress in Kerry Washington; who totally nails the feature role of Olivia Pope.

During interviews Rhimes has said 'Scandal' is based on the life of the real African-American behind the scenes Washington DC fixer extraordinaire Judy Smith. (Minus the affair with the president of course.)

On the comedy side of network television there's currently quite a buzz surrounding the upcoming selection of a yet-to-be publicly named black female comedienne set to join the cast of Saturday Night Live at the start of the new year.

Tracy Wallace speculates about who it might be on the 3 top choices on PolicyMic.com.

As a long-time fan of the show, I think it's a shrewd casting move that could potentially broaden the demographics of the audience to include more people of color, and expand the kinds of characters they could spoof to make the skits funnier.

For seasoned watchers, there's a quietly-growing sense of anticipation of seeing a new cast member on the actual screen and how they will interact with the rest of a talented cast with a lot of sketch comedy and improv experience.

Depending on the kinds of skits, scenarios and characters the writers can come up with, the addition could possibly end up boosting ratings for the crucial May Sweeps.

The actual green-lighting for such an unexpectedly high profile mid-season casting decision seems to have boiled down to reluctant NBC executives being prodded along by actual public opinion.

From a professional industry perspective there's no question it could have been handled better. But in all fairness to Lorne Michaels he's given a number of black performers some excellent opportunities, and not just Eddie Murphy; there's a sense the intensity of the issue took him by surprise in terms of how ardently the fan base and media felt about there being a much more immediate need for a black female cast member.

The SNL writers certainly also deserve some credit for helping to ratchet up the level of public opinion on the issue. As was seen in the weeks following the November 3rd appearance of 'Scandal' star Kerry Washington as SNL host, when the writers famously poked fun at the controversy during the show.

The subsequent discussion about the skit quite suddenly thrust long-time producer Lorne Michaels and NBC executives into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position of having to respond to both the media and public about the uncomfortable fact that the regular SNL cast has not included a black female member in six years - and only four during the entire 38-year run of the show.

I have to digress and say Garret Morris was hysterical as the cleaning lady sent into to mop up the floor of Three Mile Island in the episode where Dan Akroyd played Jimmy Carter; the prisoner song-sketch is also one of Garret's funniest SNL moments.

Anyway, while the end result is positive, overall the NBC executives came off as having reacted a little slowly and sheepishly. It was klutzy rather than smooth. A mile away from cool and nowhere near as well thought-out as it could (and should) have been given the need for that kind of diversity within the cast - and the industry.

Black cast members Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah are both on record as saying the cast should include a black female cast member, with Thompson noting with diplomatic humor that he's tired of having to play female black characters in drag.

At least we don't have to wait too long to see how it all plays out; secret auditions held by NBC in Los Angeles have already taken place and the new cast member is set to debut in January.

Given that it's already December 19th, they've likely already made the decision and are gearing up some kind of pricey PR campaign to take advantage of the buzz. Should be interesting to see who gets the call; good thing there's no pressure stepping into that role on live television.

Finally, on yesterday's edition of NPR's "Tell Me More", host Michel Martin had a very insightful interview with Alexis Wilkinson, the first black female president of the venerable Harvard Lampoon since it's founding in 1876; and her new vice-president Eleanor Parker.

Being selected as president is quite a statement of Wilkinson's talent and potential considering the roster of former Lampoon members and writers including John Updike, Conan 'O Brian, David X. Cohen (creator of the animated series 'Futurama'), Greg Daniels (show runner for 'The Office' and 'Parks and Recreation') and George Plimpton to name just a few.

You can listen to the interview here, or read through the transcript.

It's refreshing to see such strides being made and doors being opened for talented black women given that they are so underrepresented in mainstream comedy. I suspect Moms Mabley would be proud.