by Nadia Cohen
In emails from December 2013, executives discussed the cut of back-end profits from American Hustle. Director David O. Russell and actors Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner were each paid 9 per cent of the final takings. Jennifer and her co-star Amy Adams, however, got 7 per cent for the Oscar-winning flick.
In the damning exchange of emails between co-chairman Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures president Doug Belgrad and Columbia Pictures president Andrew Gumpert, Gumpert raises the highly sensitive issue. And it was his hastily written email, which directly addressed the disparity in pay, that sparked the controversy, following its publication in The Daily Beast: ‘Got a rush call that it’s unfair the male actors get 9% in the pool and jennifer is only at 7pts. You may recall Jennifer was at 5 (amy was and is at 7) and ME wanted in 2 extra points for Jennifer to get her up to 7. If anyone needs to top jennifer up it’s megan. BUT I think amy and Jennifer are tied so upping JL, ups AA.’
In the second half of the email, the Amy and AA referred to is Amy Adams, and Megan is Megan Ellison, head of co-financer Annapurna Pictures.
The same email went on to read: ‘The current talent deals are: O’Russell: 9%; Cooper: 9%; Bale: 9%; Renner: 9%; Lawrence: 7%; Adams: 7%.’
To which Amy Pascal responded: ‘There is truth in this.’
Jennifer was apparently originally earmarked for just 5 per cent of the film’s profits, according to emails in which she is tagged by her nickname ‘peanutbutt’.
According to publication Screen Rant and other sources, Jennifer saw a massive pay increase following her Best Actress win and the success of X-Men. For the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, she earned $10 million, plus bonuses and escalators, placing her on the fast track to becoming one of the world’s highest-paid actresses.
And she was named the second highest-paid actress of 2014, after Sandra Bullock, with estimated earnings of $34 million, thanks to her starring role in The Hunger Games franchise. It also emerged that American Hustle only got the green light to be made following the success of The Hunger Games.
The story became such big news because by this time Jennifer had been Hollywood’s most bankable star for at least two years, and yet despite her high profile she was still subject to pay inequality – being paid 77 cents for every dollar her male co-stars made.
After breaking the story, which sparked furious news headlines around the world, a spokesman for The Daily Beast explained: ‘The Daily Beast has combed through much of the hundreds of thousands of emails and unearthed many other shocking revelations. But the most troubling reveal concerning Lawrence is in regard to her financial compensation, with hacked emails revealing that the Hunger Games star was compensated less than her male co-stars on American Hustle.’
It is not known exactly how much the actresses were paid in the end, but these revelations were excruciating enough for the studio heads. Sony Pictures had fallen victim to a mass hack by a group referred to as the Guardians of Democracy. And many of the emails released proved incredibly embarrassing for Sony, most notably Pascal and producer Scott Rudin. Both have issued public apologies to anyone offended by any of their remarks.
And it emerged that the 25 gigabytes of data posted online by the hackers was possibly just a fraction of the terabytes stolen from Sony’s computers.
Friends star Lisa Kudrow spoke out about the hacking incident, and made it clear she was not happy about the discrepancies in salaries between male and female actors. At the time she was starring in the HBO series, The Comeback, which ironically explored the modern-day entertainment industry and touched on topics such as how women are treated and judged differently from men in the notoriously sexist world of show business.
Speaking to E! News about the concepts explored in her show, and how it related to the Hollywood hacking drama, Kudrow said: ‘Recently I was hearing that Jennifer Lawrence was paid the least of any of the men [actors in American Hustle]. Does that mean Amy Adams, too? Well, oh, that’s weird? Why does that happen?
‘Those women are not the draw? People are coming to see Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale? I mean, if that’s a fact then that’s a fact, but is that a fact? I guess is my question.’
Jennifer herself refused to comment on the scandal and when Amy Adams said she did not wish to discuss it either, she was pulled from an appearance on the Today Show in December 2014. She said she would not feel comfortable answering questions and as a result, producers cancelled her segment, which was meant to promote her new film, Big Eyes.
The Weinstein Company, the film studio responsible for Big Eyes, had this to say about the situation: ‘We firmly stand behind Amy Adams. We’ve been lucky enough to have had her talents grace several of our films. We are certain her fellow actors and directors would all agree, she is nothing but the consummate professional both on and off set.
‘Amy decided to speak up for herself and express her disappointment that Today would feel the need to ask her a question she did not feel comfortable [with], and rather than respect her opinion or continue the discussion, the reaction was to pull her appearance from the show.’
The leaked information from the Sony hack also revealed a major gap between executives’ salaries. Of the seventeen Sony executives whose salary was over $1 million, just one was a woman: Sony Pictures’ chair Amy Pascal herself.
The co-president of Columbia Pictures, a Sony subsidiary, Hannah Minghella, was on track to earn $1.55 million that year, but that was actually $1 million less than male co-president Michael De Luca.
In the wake of the controversy, Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron and her agents used the newly acquired information to renegotiate her contract for her upcoming movie The Huntsman – the sequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Theron demanded to be paid the same amount as her co-star Chris Hemsworth. Universal Pictures reportedly agreed, offering her a new deal worth more than $10 million to avoid facing the same accusations of sexism that Sony Pictures had endured.
The revelations sparked a heated conversation throughout the industry: ‘What it really reveals is how men are able to propel themselves to the top of the Hollywood food chain so quickly,’ said Melissa Silverstein, founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, an organisation and website that educates, advocates and agitates for gender parity across the entertainment industry. ‘Chris Hemsworth was nothing really until he got that hammer of Thor in his hands just a couple of years ago, and now he’s able to make as much money as, or more than, an Academy Award-winning actress.’
Although the film industry has a reputation for liberal politics, she added that sexism was still rife: ‘There is a narrative in Hollywood that men are more bankable.’ She said she was encouraged by Charlize Theron’s successful push for parity, but that her excitement was tempered by years of watching this problem go nowhere: ‘Until we see some movement in these numbers, I don’t think we have accomplished what we need to accomplish.’
And in an interview with The New York Times, actress Jennifer Aniston also spoke on the Hollywood pay disparity: ‘We’re very much a sexist society,’ she declared. ‘Women are still not paid as much as men.’
MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski chimed in too, suggesting that Jennifer should demand back pay from the producers of American Hustle.
‘Hollywood is the perfect example of just how bad this problem is. The gap in what women are paid to their male counterparts, it’s obscene.
‘I think everybody whose salary was revealed, like Jennifer Lawrence, they should all speak out. They all should hold companies accountable. I would look for retroactive pay for the movie where she was paid too little.
‘I’m serious. Absolutely. Because at this point, it’s not going to be fixed unless you hold them to it.’
But when asked about her decision to pay Jennifer less than her male co-stars, Sony Pictures’ Amy Pascal remained unrepentant, saying it was a purely commercial decision that she had to make: ‘I run a business,’ she stated. In February 2015 Pascal was speak
ing at the Women in the World event in San Francisco, where she was interviewed onstage by the legendary former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Tina Brown.
‘People should know what they’re worth,’ Pascal explained. ‘I’ve paid [Jennifer Lawrence] a lot more money since then, I promise you.
‘Here’s the problem: I run a business. People want to work for less money; I’ll pay them less money. I don’t call them up and say, “Can I give you some more?”
‘Because that’s not what you do when you run a business. The truth is, what women have to do is not work for less money. They have to walk away.
‘People shouldn’t be so grateful for jobs. People should know what they’re worth.’
The issue became headline news again when actress Patricia Arquette highlighted the gender pay gap in her acceptance speech after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Boyhood in early 2015. She drew cheers from the star-studded crowd – and Meryl Streep jumped up and shouted ‘Yes!’ – when she said: ‘To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights.
‘It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.’
Although she did not specifically mention the leaked Sony emails, Arquette used the attention she received on the night to speak out about the issue of gender inequality.
She went on to tell the press backstage: ‘It is time for us. It is time for women. Equal means equal. And the truth is, the older women get, the less money they make. The highest percentage of children living in poverty are in female-headed households.
‘It’s inexcusable that we go around the world and we talk about equal rights for women in other countries and we don’t have equal rights for women in America, and we don’t because when they wrote the Constitution, they didn’t intend it for women.’
Gender equality became the unlikely theme of the night, since Arquette was not the only actress using the high-profile ceremony to make a feminist point. When Oscar nominee Reese Witherspoon was interviewed on the red carpet, she brought up AskHerMore – an online campaign encouraging journalists to ask actresses about more than their favourite designers, or who made their dress.
‘This is a movement to say we’re more than just our dresses. It’s hard being a woman in Hollywood,’ explained Witherspoon.
But just as the issue seemed to be dying down, four months later another huge cache of hacked Sony emails was published by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
One message revealed the studio was forced to deal with problems that occurred as a result of Jennifer’s heavy workload and back-to-back filming commitments. For months her schedule had been relentless and in January 2014 she refused to fly back to Los Angeles to shoot a glossy magazine cover for Entertainment Weekly with her American Hustle co-stars in the run-up to the Oscars. Although co-stars Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams had agreed to promote the movie with the influential US magazine, Jennifer insisted she was too tired to make the trip from where she was filming in Georgia. She also snubbed an Academy Award lunch, despite being among the nominees.
An email from Sony executive Jon Gordon said: ‘Jen is definitively not coming in for the Academy luncheon. She is exhausted and the only trip she will make to LA between now and June is for the Oscars.’
Gordon’s colleague Ileen Reich added: ‘Jennifer Lawrence will NOT do. She won’t be on another EW cover. Christian Bale will NOT do. His reps have said he doesn’t do publicity once a film has opened.’
But studio boss Megan Ellison was clearly furious that Jennifer decided to turn down not only the photo shoot, but also the high-profile lunch, which would both promote the studio’s films. She fired back: ‘We really need to make sure Jennifer is there. I think it’s a huge mistake to let her get away with not coming.’
Another studio executive, Andre Caraco, added: ‘We definitely need help if we want to turn this around, including getting her to the nominees luncheon.’
The exchange revealed that the studio had spent vast sums on private planes to allow Jennifer to travel between various awards ceremonies in style, following her nomination for American Hustle. According to the messages, Sony spent $47,000 to charter a private jet to fly her from Atlanta to the Academy Awards, where she was contending for Best Supporting Actress.
Many of the emails discuss the various dilemmas the studio faced in trying to transport Jennifer from key award shows to film sets and back again. One message was seeking approval for a $51,000 private jet trip so Jennifer could attend the 2014 SAG Awards. Another exchange gave details of arrangements for getting the actress and her co-star Christian Bale out of stormy Atlanta for promotional commitments and then getting her back to The Hunger Games set to make a 6am call time.
The lengthy email from Andre Caraco read:
Information is coming in fast & furiously about the weather patterns today and how they affect private travel for Christian and Jennifer so I want to get us all on the same page.
Christian Bale: Our original plan had him doing the red carpet at the Premiere and then proceeding to the airport for a 9pm departure for Spain. Per the private aviation company, Avjet – to be 100% safe, as weather patterns rapidly change, they are suggesting that we push Christian’s departure up to 6PM. The 9PM departure is still a possibility, however there is a risk involved and as you all know, there is a significant cost we are on the line for if we do not deliver him back to production in time. We need to let him know NOW so that he and his family and agents can prepare as well as alerting the jet team ASAP.
Jennifer Lawrence: Her situation is different as weather patterns in Atlanta are already compromised and we have been told that she cannot fly at the scheduled time (8:15PM) this evening. Given that she has a 6AM call tomorrow on HUNGER GAMES, and the earliest departure time for tomorrow is 7:30AM we are being informed that the only time she can depart today in order to beat the weather is 5:00PM. Jennifer’s security has connected with her and she has decided that she wants to leave at that time and the crew has been alerted as well.
Vice chairman Jeff Blake replied: ‘Urgently need to know the penalty for Jennifer Lawrence not being on set of Hunger Games tomorrow’.
In the group email, Caraco responded that Jennifer would not travel in the bad weather. He added: ‘Just to be totally clear… leaving after 5.30pm for Jennifer is not an option and her security has advised her that it is not safe and she will not do it.
‘Bottom line: we are either buying her out or she leaves at 5pm.’
Eventually Jennifer agreed to attend the event, but Reich sent out a message reminding her team how to behave at the ceremony. She wrote: ‘You are smiley all night no matter what. And stay in seat at end no matter what – don’t get up to leave until show is over – even if it doesn’t go our way. Because they could pan to our table during speech and have to look gracious no matter what.’
But the company’s lavish use of private jets was a source of huge embarrassment, as it also emerged that the actor and passionate environmental campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio had flown on a private jet six times in six weeks.
DiCaprio, a high-profile advocate of environmental causes, believes the world must act now to combat the effects of global climate change and is also producing documentaries about endangered species. However, accusations of hypocrisy have dogged the Hollywood star, with detractors accusing him of not practising what he preaches.
The entire episode proved embarrassing for Sony as the studio struggled to recover from the leak. In among the scores of other revealing messages, which went public in April 2015, it was also revealed that Amy Pascal wanted to remake the film Cleopatra with Jennifer in the lead, but Angelina Jolie was already lined up for the role. Pascal wrote to a friend: ‘I was reading old Cleopatra notes. I’d have to kill Angie. But the thought has crossed my mind.’
Another of Pascal’s notes contained in the database e
xplained that Jennifer and Emma Stone had indicated an early interest in starring in a remake of Ghostbusters with an all-female cast.
In what was widely seen as a nightmare scenario for the studio, WikiLeaks created a searchable database of the 30,287 Sony Pictures Entertainment documents, and 173,132 emails loaded with personal information and business dealings. In defending the decision to post the documents, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wrote on his website: ‘The Sony Archives offer a rare insight into the inner workings of a large, secretive multinational corporation.
‘The work publicly known from Sony is to produce entertainment; however, The Sony Archives show that behind the scenes this is an influential corporation, with ties to the White House (there are almost 100 US government email addresses in the archive), with an ability to impact laws and policies, and with connections to the US military-industrial complex.’
Among the messages that hit the headlines, there was one about megastar singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, who had proved to be such a cash cow for Sony that his contract was renewed until 2027, according to an email from Sony CFO Steve Kober to Sony CEO Michael Lynton: ‘Given his track record, this is not an artist that we can afford to lose. Sony Music earned approximately $72 million above the $101 million paid to Springsteen over the term.’
And in another message, actor George Clooney, who was hired to direct a film about the British tabloid phone-hacking scandal, prophetically quipped that Sony’s emails might be hacked.
Other revelations included news that Tom Cruise was in talks to play Steve Jobs in a movie, Angelina Jolie was a ‘minimally talented spoilt brat’, and Clooney was monumentally embarrassed by The Monuments Men movie.
Angelina’s husband Brad Pitt was also exposed for throwing a tantrum in a revealing email exchange between producers Michael De Luca and Doug Belgrad. Discussing 2014’s Fury, Belgrad said Pitt was unhappy with some changes made to the movie: ‘So Brad seems to have wigged out while watching the new cut and complained to Cynthia that he’s “gutted” by the changes and threatened not to do publicity,’ Belgrad wrote. ‘He’s also been texting with Ayer, who told me that Brad has only watched through the dinner sequence. David is hopeful that it’s just a bad night or a reaction to trims or tweaks that he can easily restore.
