Saturday, December 13, 2014

Sony hacked emails show Maureen Dowd is a hack?

"Leaked emails from Sony suggest that New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd promised to show Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal’s husband, Bernard Weinraub, — a former Times reporter — a version of a column featuring Pascal before publication."
The end result was a column that painted Pascal in such a good light that she engaged in a round of mutual adulation with Dowd over email after its publication. It also scored Pascal points back at the studio, with Sony’s then-communications-chief calling the column “impressive.”

The column, published after the Academy Awards earlier this year, lamented how “Oscar voters and industry top brass are still overwhelmingly white, male and middle-aged.”
What does it mean and will anybody care?

14 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

Dowd is a corrupt hack?

I don't think I need to read this article to discover that.

AllenS said...

Say it ain't so.

virgil xenophon said...

Shocked, shocked..

AllenS said...

What next? Is someone going to tell me that Santa Clause isn't real?

chickelit said...

I'm still nonplussed by the whole Sony hacking story. Can someone summarize the damage vs. the good?

ricpic said...

Looks like Pascal's career is in jeopardy because she made some mild allusions to our Emperor's race in the emails. Looks like the only way she can save herself is to send out some totally vicious emails about straight white males or Catholics.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

He forgot to say that they're also "more motivated".

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Dowd is our gynocracy's finest Kultur Minister.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I think anyone's opinions on gender whose proudest book-writing achievement is titled "Are Men Necessary?" (2.7/5 stars on Amazon) can safely be avoided.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Dowd's problem is that she's got all the prissy personality of American Gothic mixed with Mona Lisa's smirk, and is too Catholic to realize why this doesn't make her more likable.

But occasionally she does crank out a witty column or two. Which of course only compounds the problem.

Chip Ahoy said...

Chicklit, the damage from partisan Democrat perspective is having one's private conversations that are known to all, now known and on full display to Gruber's voters. It makes it impossible to persecute thought crime.

That will simply not do.

The appropriate response is, "Oh grow up." But that is not possible in the weird world they inhabit.

The movies suggested were slave-related, "Should I ask him (Obama) while at the breakfast fundraiser (silly) which movies he would support?" Unacceptable you can't think that, much less glibly joke, even mildly.

You can overhear any such remark at any cafe table in that area.

But they are the people bringing the movies. So obviously agenda-driven they're not worth watching. I'm thinking, what, no Driving Miss Daisy, no The Green Mile? No Malcolm X? (Malcolm Ten, according to Revenge of the Nerds, one of my favorite lines.)

But this is all so wearisome. Know what's fun? Meininger Art Materials, that's what.

They're right down the street a few miles on Broadway, like 14 blocks. I love going there. I should more often. It's like being a kid in a candy store.

On the surface everybody seems so artsy-fartsy and pretentious, but they are not.

Right off the bat, and I mean immediately before entering, a young gent held open the door unnecessarily and for a prolonged period as I caught up, then retraced his steps, went backward to open the inside door. Also unnecessarily.

!

Who does that?

The guy at the counter at front acknowledges I am bringing something in so there will be no difficulty when going back out. (I took my prints rolled up to match the mat)

A very attractive tall young woman helped with 4 large mat boards. She carried them and wrapped them. While she wrapped them I mentioned the embossed paper on display and the hand printed sheets of paper are all art in themselves. She agreed wholeheartedly. I remarked, "Can you imagine receiving a gift wrapped in such paper?

That's all it took to open the conversational floodgate. She was very eager to talk about paper. We hit it off, pow, right there. She talked to me about wanting to visit Japan. I told I lived there. She opened right up about Japanese aesthetic, explored that whole avenue enthusiastically, carried the mat board out to my truck to continue the conversation. The whole episode delightful. It makes me want to go back for more of the same. Their training is excellent, if it is training.

Then second stop to Tony's to take advantage of their 12 days of Christmas sale. I marked my i-calendar for the things that I wanted. That put me in their store more often then usual to pick up singular items. I was starving. As usual. The guy at the Deli appears aloof and standoffish foodie hipster type. But not so. I order three things one at a time. I said, "I am making a fundamental food-shopping rule violation." Expecting him not to know what I'm on about, nor to care.

"Shopping while you are hungry?"

"Yes!"

"Story of my life." Imagine that. He was actually paying attention. I mentioned I saw a family at a nearby buffet filing by with plates piled up, except their young boy with a plate of a few colorful jiggling cubes Jello. The deli guy's coworker standing nearby overheard and amused, shaking his head "All he wanted was Jello."

At checkout I tried my food-shopping rule violation again and the clerk finished the phrase. Honestly, so young as that I do not expect them to get what I'm on about, but they do. They all do. I find all this remarkable and charming. Absolutely NONE of the harried holiday clerk showing. Patience and charm all around.

edutcher said...

We needed somebody to tell us?

chickelit said...

Chip Ahoy said...
Chicklit, the damage from partisan Democrat perspective is having one's private conversations that are known to all, now known and on full display to Gruber's voters. It makes it impossible to persecute thought crime.

OK. A serious and doubtless illegal breach of privacy is lessened by the intense Schadenfreude of what is learned.

The film industry being attacked is not what the average American wants the industry to be -- thus the indifference.

William said...

So far no emails about recruiting children for the next hot tub party, but stay tuned. The worst scandal is a catty remark about Angelina Jolie and a few jokes about Obama that barely register 4.2 on the racist Richter scale. I was hoping for better.