user: Input: What the monumental Sony email hack tells us about Hollywood
The tagline of Us Weekly, the venerable celebrity magazine that opines breathlessly about the Kardashians’ coffee orders and Kaley Cuoco’s wedding, always says: “Stars, they’re just like us.” Turns out the same thing is true about movie executives, the people that make the stars. That is why everyone is so riveted by the emails being leaked from Sony Pictures executives.

In the aftermath of a monumental hack (possibly at the hands of the North Korean government, but maybe not), emails from all sorts of Sony Pictures executives – and others – have made their way into the public sphere. The most noteworthy are a correspondence between Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal and super producer Scott Rudin in which they discuss the fate of a Steve Jobs biopic. The two are clearly not fans of each other or of Angelina Jolie, who Rudin calls “a minimally talented spoiled brat”. And let’s not forget about all the people who work at Sony who think that Adam Sandler is a talentless hack who makes formulaic movies.

The thing is, Pascal and Rudin are talking about their coworkers the same way that we do. If people only saw all the awful things I write about Paul in accounting they would blush. (JK, there is no Paul in accounting, but you get what I mean.) We talk plenty of shit about the companies we work for and how awful and mismanaged they are and what we would do if we were in charge. We make disparaging remarks about people around the office and how good they are at their jobs or how annoying they are or how they’ve been wearing that same maroon plaid shirt three times a week for the past six months. That is just the nature of professional life. The only difference here is that these people are famous.

But that is a very key difference. It’s not that these people are well-known; it’s that they work in an industry that really peddles in the public being obsessed with it. No one needs movies. You can live a very happy and content existence without them, but Tinsel Town draws us in and makes us want to buy the fantasy. The film industry is covered fanatically and exhaustively, with blog posts about every teaser trailer and stars plastered in magazines, on late-night television, and across billboards whenever they have a new project coming out.

The star-making machinery makes us think that we’re insiders, knowing everything there is about these actors and their projects, especially as consumers become more and more interested in the business itself, thanks to places like the Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly.

However, the whole time the message is being heavily controlled by publicists, marketing professionals, agents, stylists, and other people who scream a lot and wear suits. What’s great about the Sony Pictures hack is that it’s the first time that the information we’re getting out of the entertainment industrial complex isn’t being very tightly controlled. Even leaks to sites like Deadline Hollywood are very carefully orchestrated in an endless game of chess, using the press as just another tool so producers, agents, and film execs can get what they want. Just look at the venomous back and forth Pascal and Rudin have. And these are people in the upper echelons of their professions.

This correspondence is symptomatic of something different. This is how people in Hollywood talk when they think no one is listening, and it’s exactly how we thought they felt all along. We know they have no faith in overinflated duds like Jolie’s proposed Cleopatra, which neither Pascal or Rudin really want to make. We know that Adam Sandler is past his prime and doesn’t deserve all the money he’s getting. We know that most actors, Jolie included, can be very difficult to work with and have egos that need to be handled very delicately. We know, and we’re just so glad that there is finally something to tell us we’re not crazy. This isn’t the “He’s great to work with,” pap that actors and directors say about each other in fawning magazine profiles. This is the real deal, and there’s no going back from this.

That is why every time there is a leak from Hollywood – whether it’s Lily Tomlin and David O Russell’s feud or Christian Bale’s meltdown on the set of a Terminator movie – it’s met with such robust attention. Hollywood needs us to be incredibly interested and involved in the success of their increasingly huge blockbusters in order for them to make money, but it simultaneously feels the need to keep us at arm’s length, buying into the mythology they want to sell us rather than the truth. Thanks to the internet, that myth is becoming even more impossible to maintain.

Despite what they would like us to believe, we run under the assumption that Hollywood execs are a bunch of backstabbing, screaming, irrational, and mostly ego-driven individuals. If there’s anything we’ve learned from the Sony hack, it’s that it is absolutely true. People in this industry behave like people in all other industries. Maybe in the future, tapping into the fact that they’re just like us will be something of a selling point for the industry. The illusion they’re trying to sell is fading. Maybe instead of holding up a mirage to get the public’s attention they should focus on holding up a mirror.
What was this article about?
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It's about: Don’t feel bad, Angie. We always assumed that the film business was full of backstabbing egomaniacs – and it turns out that we were right


Input: Usher announces new album with help from Jimmy Kimmel
Image: Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IPx

We've heard a few singles from Usher this pat year, but now it's finally time to look forward to a full project from the R&B legend.

Usher visited Jimmy Kimmel Live! to officially let the world know that his new album, Hard II Love will be available on September 16.

This will be his eighth studio album and will be coming after what he told Kimmel were "some ups and downs." His last release was 2012's Looking 4 Myself .

The singer also revealed the album artwork: an image of his bust created by Daniel Arsham.

In January, Arsham posted a video of the two teasing a new album Flawed. While the title may have changed, recently released tracks like "No Limit" might still make the tracklist.

Beyond new music, Usher is currently on theater screens across the nation in the film Hands of Stone, playing legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
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It's about:

assistant: Now available for pre-order.