When Sony was hacked late last year, thousands of emails between studio execs and movie stars were leaked, among other confidential files. One name that started to get a lot of press, despite being virtually unknown to people outside of the entertainment industry up to that point, was Amy Pascal. The co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment had worked relatively quietly in Hollywood for years, developing and overseeing the production of movies like Groundhog Day, Little Women, A League of Their Own, the Spider-Man films, the Daniel Craig Bond films, The Smurfs, The Da Vinci Code and its sequel, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Moneyball and The Social Network.
Pascal’s emails became a prominent fixture in the Sony hack scandal. Some included disparaging remarks about Angelina Jolie, and a conversation about Barack Obama that has been called racist. Presumably to distance itself from the scandal and the surrounding bad press, it’s assumed by many that Sony forced Pascal to resign from her performance. However, she will remain with Sony in a different capacity, heading up a new “major production venture” for the company. Angelina Jolie will probably not be involved.