12512: Amy Pascal Is Ignorant.

The New York Times reported soon-to-be-transitioning Sony Chair Amy Pascal admitted she had indeed been fired for her cultural cluelessness—although she technically didn’t acknowledge her ignorance and accountability in the termination. “You should always say exactly what you think directly to people all the time,” said Pascal. “In the moment, the first time.” Um, if Pascal had any integrity, she would have followed her own advice versus insulting President Obama, exposing her closet racism and prompting her own dismissal.

Amy Pascal Says Sony Pushed Her Out of Studio Post

By Michael Cieply

LOS ANGELES — “All I did was get fired,” Amy Pascal said during a public discussion at the Women in the World conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

With that blunt declaration, Ms. Pascal put to rest behind-the-scenes speculation among those who work closely with her as to how much was push and how much was pull in the weeks leading to the announcement of her exit from Sony Pictures Entertainment last week.

Ms. Pascal now acknowledges there was plenty of push. Her remarks, made on stage during a talk with the writer and media entrepreneur Tina Brown, were framed as a tribute to women honored at the annual meeting, which in the past featured Hillary Rodham Clinton and the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde.

“All the women here are doing incredible things in this world,” said Ms. Pascal, in the immediate run-up to her remark about being shoved out of Sony.

Long before Sony was hit by a damaging hacking attack that spread Ms. Pascal’s embarrassing emails around the planet, she had been in deep discussions about a contract renewal, and those obviously had not gone well. In the late summer, it looked as if she might be gone — the victim of a weakening track record and of changing studio economics.

By the fall, however, people close to her signaled that the renewal was settled, though always speaking on condition of anonymity.

In November came the hacking, which crippled the company’s computer systems and made available reams of data on the company, including personal emails. For a time, it appeared that the attack had perversely changed the internal equation in Ms. Pascal’s favor. People briefed on Sony’s internal workings repeatedly said her career would not be a victim of the attack. Sony executives, and Ms. Pascal, just as repeatedly declined to discuss her renewal.

With last week’s announcement of her resignation, Ms. Pascal was described by some people as having tired of the job, and of the contract renewal process. They said she found the prospect of a fresh career producing movies more alluring than a taxing executive job.

The studio’s official statement about her departure was artfully ambiguous: It said Ms. Pascal would “transition” to a new production venture at the studio, without getting into the particulars of her departure.

Ms. Pascal’s new production deal could pay her as much as $40 million over four years, and involves her with some of Sony’s most valued projects, including the “Spider-Man” and “Da Vinci Code” series. As details of the deal came out, word began to circulate among studio associates, including producers who would now be competing with her, that she had in fact been fired.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for Sony, where Ms. Pascal remains co-chairwoman until May, declined to comment.

But, as reported by the Recode.net Web news service, Ms. Pascal was mincing no words on Wednesday.

“You should always say exactly what you think directly to people all the time,” she said.

“In the moment, the first time.”

12497: Pascal’s Prestigious Penance.

The New York Times reported soon-to-be-reassigned Sony Chair and closet racist Amy Pascal will be working on the studio’s Spider-Man series. Hey, maybe she’ll support the fans on Twitter calling for a Black Spider-Man.

Amy Pascal to Work on Sony’s Spider-Man Team

By Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply

LOS ANGELES — Amy Pascal may be giving up the Sony Pictures crown, but she’s keeping the jewels.

In a deal announced late Monday, Ms. Pascal will join the producing team for Sony’s most important film property — the Spider-Man series — when she steps down as the studio’s movie chairwoman in May. Landing the blockbuster franchise ranks her alongside Hollywood’s most prominent producers.

Ms. Pascal will also board the studio’s high-profile “Ghostbusters” remake, according to people briefed on her exit package who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss deals that are still private. She is additionally expected to tackle “Cleopatra,” an epic starring Angelina Jolie that has long gestated at Sony.

Sony also said on Monday that Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, will join Ms. Pascal in producing the next Spider-Man film. As yet untitled, the movie will be released in July 2017. It will not continue the story set out in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” which Sony released to mediocre results last year.

Together, the deals with Ms. Pascal and Marvel signify a structural transition at Sony, which was struggling with uneven box office results long before it suffered a devastating cyberattack in November. Like other studios, Sony will become less an operation run by an auteur chief — for the last 18 years, Ms. Pascal — and more a federation of powerful filmmaking arms competing for coveted release dates.

Whoever succeeds Ms. Pascal will have to play broker among the fiefs. Ms. Pascal, lured by the attractive new deal and drained by the pressures of the hacking crisis, announced her departure last week.

Thomas E. Rothman, the former chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment, is now in charge of Sony’s rejuvenated TriStar division. Jeff Robinov recently brought his Studio 8, financed by China’s Fosun Group, to Sony after leaving his post as the top movie executive at Warner Bros. Another Sony division dedicated to lower-budget urban comedies and horror films, Screen Gems, is run by Clint Culpepper.

Mr. Rothman and Mr. Robinov have only just started to assemble what are expected to be dozens of films that — alongside the contributions of Ms. Pascal — will shape Sony’s creative signature through much of the next decade. Mr. Rothman and Mr. Robinov will work together on one early film, Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” an Iraq war veteran story.

Ms. Pascal’s exit deal, among the richest in Hollywood history, will guarantee her income of between $30 million and $40 million over four years, according to people briefed on its terms. Her package also includes a percentage of profits on movies she produces and roughly $9 million annually for office costs and discretionary acquisition of scripts.

The agreement ranks in opulence with the farewell 20th Century Fox package given to Peter Chernin when he left as president of the News Corporation in 2009. Among the prime Fox properties Mr. Chernin joined as a producer was the reimagined “Planet of the Apes” series, which went on to generate more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

Ms. Pascal’s presence on so many films will inevitably crowd producers who might otherwise have had her slot. Notably, Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach, both of whom were producers of the last two Spider-Man films, will transition to lesser roles on the next Spider-Man movie.

Spider-Man is a Marvel character, but Marvel sold Sony the movie rights in 1999 and has had almost no involvement since. As part of the agreement with Marvel announced Monday, Marvel can include the Spider-Man character in its own movies — starting, perhaps, with “Captain America: Civil War,” which will arrive in May 2016.

Sony will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the stand-alone Spider-Man films.

The Spider-Man series came to Sony when Ms. Pascal helped connect the project with Laura Ziskin, a friend who resigned as president of Fox 2000 in 2009 and quickly set up shop as a producer at Sony. With the immense success of “Spider-Man,” which had about $822 million in worldwide ticket sales after its release in 2002, Ms. Ziskin helped reinvigorate the studio. (She died of breast cancer in 2011.)

Two more sequels, both starring Tobey Maguire as the title character, delivered mammoth ticket sales. But Sony’s last outing with Spider-Man — its original deal with Marvel requires the films to keep coming — did not perform as well as its predecessors, taking in about $706 million at the global box office in 2014.

While Sony has struggled to keep Spider-Man vibrant, Mr. Feige has delivered hits like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” “We always want to collaborate with the best and most successful filmmakers to grow our franchises,” Michael Lynton, Sony’s chief executive, said in a statement.

12484: Pascal Pushed To Production.

The New York Daily News reported Sony Chair Amy Pascal has been politely pushed out of her position to pursue a “major new production venture at the studio.” If there were any justice in the world, Pascal would be forced to produce for Tyler Perry, Kevin Hart and Angelina Jolie. A source stated, “The word is she was allowed to back out instead of just being fired.” Hey, it only shows that White women in Hollywood are doing as well as White women in adland. Indeed, Madison Avenue still offers a back-up plan for Pascal, as culturally clueless White women are always in demand.

Amy Pascal allowed to resign as Sony Pictures boss after email leaks, but Scott Rubin avoids penalty

Sources told Confidenti@l that Rubin faces no penalty beyond a few dings to his reputation, even though he and Pascal were caught exchanging racist emails about President Obama’s supposed movie tastes and trashing Angelina Jolie. Pascal, however, has been allowed to resign rather than be fired. ‘Even though Scott is an equal player and disliked by many, he is still a man and it’s unfortunate. Even in Hollywood the woman is always viewed differently,’ sources said.

By Marianne Garvey , Brian Niemietz , Corky Siemaszko | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Two Hollywood heavyweights were caught exchanging racist emails about President Obama’s supposed movie tastes and trashing Angelina Jolie — but only the woman is taking a fall.

Sony Pictures Entertainment boss Amy Pascal has been eased out of her post as chairman for what the company on Thursday called a “major new production venture at the studio.”

Meanwhile, Pascal’s partner in slime, superproducer Scott Rudin, faces no penalty beyond a few dings to his reputation.

“The word is she was allowed to back out instead of just being fired,” sources told Confidential.

“Even though Scott is an equal player and disliked by many, he is still a man and it’s unfortunate.”

“Even in Hollywood, the woman is always viewed differently.”

There was no immediate comment from Sony or Rudin, who runs his own production company, the engine behind “No Country for Old Men” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” among others.

But Pascal’s exit comes three months after hackers unloaded a deluge of embarrassing company emails in which she and Rudin traded the malevolent messages prior to an Obama fund-raiser at Dreamworks chief Jeffery Katzenberg’s house in November 2013.

Neither Pascal nor Sony mentioned the scandal in their sunny statement about her departure from the corner office.

“I have always wanted to be a producer,” Pascal insisted, saying this “transition” had been in the works “for quite some time.”

“I have spent almost my entire professional life at Sony Pictures and I am energized to be starting this new chapter based at the company I call home,” she said.

Pascal said she has a four-year deal with Sony and will “retain all distribution rights worldwide to films financed.” And she’s not going far — her new offices will be located on Sony’s Culver City lot.

“I am delighted that Amy will be continuing her association with SPE through this new venture, which capitalizes on her extraordinary talents,” Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said in his statement.

Pascal, the prime mover behind critical and commercial hits like “American Hustle,” “The Social Network” and “Skyfall,” was undone by the Guardians of Peace, a hacker collective believed by the FBI to be associated with the North Korean government.

The group had been demanding that Sony shelve its James Franco-Seth Rogen comedy “The Interview,” in which the Communist regime’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated.

Pascal and Rudin later apologized for insensitive jokes about the President’s favorite movies — a list comprised entirely of flicks about African-American lives.

“Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?” Pascal asks in one email, to which Rudin replies, “12 YEARS” — a reference to two slavery dramas, “Django Unchained” and “12 Years a Slave.”

The exchanges also included a jab at Jolie, who Rudin slammed as “seriously out of her mind” and “a minimally talented spoiled brat.”

Under Pascal, Sony Pictures raked in more than $46 billion in box-office revenue worldwide and garnered 315 Oscar nominations.

Movies that Pascal helped get on screen were the last three James Bond films, along with “Moneyball,” “Adaptation,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “Eat Pray Love,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”