DiCaprio bashed! Clooney abashed! Will Smith’s kids trashed!
The hits keep coming for Sony Pictures, with a new onslaught of leaked e-mails revealing still more Tinseltown taunts, tantrums and tirades.
Hardest hit in this latest round — as revealed by The Daily Beast — is Leonardo DiCaprio.
The “Titanic” star’s decision to pull out of a planned Steve Jobs biopic turns DiCaprio into a punching bag in a series of September e-mails between a producer on the problem-plagued project and Amy Pascal, the studio’s beleaguered co-chair.
“Despicable,” Pascal blasts Leo in an impolitic slur that’s sure to shake her already precarious standing at the studio.
Pascal has been flailing in a rising tide of embarrassing leaks for days — including one in which she made racially insensitive jokes about President Obama’s movie preferences — and has been fighting to keep her job with a series of mea culpas, including apologies to the Rev. Al Sharpton and the public in general.
“Was this about the deal … or did he just change his mind,” the producer, Mark Gordon, e-mails Pascal at the start of the acid exchange, inquiring into why DiCaprio ditched the Aaron Sorkin-penned “Jobs.”
Pascal replies, “The latter,” implying that the star was simply being DiCapricious.
“Horrible behavior,” sniffs Gordon.
“Actually despicable,” ups Pascal.
George Clooney gets considerably better treatment from the tart-tongued executrix in an e-mail exchange from January.
Clooney was having a crisis of confidence — in a big way — over bad reviews for “The Monuments Men.”
But Pascal actually comforted him, promising him both protection and profits.
“I need some protection from all the reviews,” the surprisingly thin-skinned Clooney writes Pascal in an e-mail subject-lined “it’s getting worse.”
“Let’s just make it a hit,” he adds. “I haven’t slept in 30 hours. And it’s 7 am.”
Pascal answers, “we will protect you by making money… that’s the best revenge.”
The next day, Clooney is still sounding deprived of sleep and confidence.
“I adore you Amy,” he writes her.
“You are literally the only person running a studio that loves film. I fear I’ve let you all down. Not my intention. I apologize. I’ve just lost touch… Who knew? Sorry. I won’t do it again.”
I need some protection from all the reviews… I haven’t slept in 30 hours.
- Clooney in an e-mail to Amy Pascal
Adorable Willow and Jaden Smith turn out to be the youngest-yet victims of Sony’s hating honchos.
This time, the bile comes from no less than Tom Rothman, the head of Sony subsidiary TriStar Productions.
Rothman takes a swipe at the kids in an e-mail he sent to Pascal in November, after he reads an interview in T magazine that recounts the Smith family’s unorthodox opinions on everything from public education to quantum physics.
“1. Read this,” Rothman writes Pascal.
“2. they r home schooled: don’t let this family date your movies!!!”
The e-mail makes no mention of dad Will Smith’s two-decade-long successful history with the studio, extending back to “Men in Black.”
Pascal’s on far better terms with star Ryan Gosling.
“Ryan absolutely loved you,” Ilene Feldman, Gosling’s talent manager, told Pascal after an October meeting.
“Said it was like speed dating because he was late after hitting every wrong gate on the lot. Not [sic] it should turn to marriage. He really wants to do something with you.”
Pascal was so pleased by the praise that she forwarded the e-mail to Michael De Luca, co-president of production for Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures, along with a query into what future projects Gosling might be interested in.
“It’s ‘Ghostbusters’ according to Ilene,” De Luca replies.
Other recently revealed dirt includes revelations that Sony execs were extremely unhappy with the script for the $300 million-plus 007 flick “Spectre,” the much-sweated-over pages of which were leaked in their entirety.
“THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME KIND OF A TWIST RATHER THAN A SERIES OF WATERY CHASES WTIH GUNS,” one exec yelled in capital letters in August about the flick’s ending, according to Defamer .gawker.com.
Another stunning revelation: Sony’s $600,000 top p.r. exec was fired after The Hollywood Reporter failed to invite Pascal to participate in a round- table interview with other top Hollywood execs, according to Bloomberg news.
“Fire your PR guy immediately,” advised Pascal’s husband, ex-New York Times reporter Bernard Weinraub.
The exec, Charles Sipkins, was out of a job six days later, Bloomberg reported.
The monthlong e-mail barrage is the handiwork of a band of hackers calling itself the “Guardians of Peace.”
The group is believed to be affiliated with the government of North Korea, which has loudly decried Sony’s planned Christmas release of the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy “The Interview.”
The two actors portray journalists hired by the CIA to assassinate North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
On Saturday, the hackers released a seventh batch of files purloined from Sony’s computers — along with a promise of more to come, plus an unspecified “Christmas gift.”
The gift will “put sony Pictures into the worst state,” The Hollywood Reporter reported.