Poutpourri of Leaks for 800, Alex....
Dec. 17th, 2014 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogBad news is coming out of Sony Pictures at record pace. The unprecedented hacking of their internal emails, with the almost instant publication of all the deliciously dishy dirt, has got egg all over Columbia's once-proud face.
First came the embarrassing reveals of salaries, strategies and the general petulance of both actors and studio executives. Nothing new there. Now, further threats aimed at a particular film release from the studio led first to most major theatre chains pulling The Interview from their screens and, by day's end, Sony canceling the Christmas premiere of the film altogether. The hackers are apparently incensed by the comedy's gruesome depiction of the assassination of North Korea's Dear Leader. Somehow, Paramount escaped all this wrath when they made massive fun of the country's previous dictator in Team America: World Police. Maybe it's because hackers would never dare touch the makers of Star Trek.
Then we had the usual readings from the Book of Threats aimed at journalists and others who would dare mine this treasure trove of scandal. My favorite of these was Aaron Sorkin accusing any media outlet reporting on the hacked material of committing "moral treason"- and doing so just two weeks after the penultimate episode of The Newsroom, which glorified Old Journalism's right and duty to report on stolen material even if the theft was of sensitive government secrets. He even sent his main character to prison for 53 days in vindication of that principle; and yet, when the secrets in question are, say, his (in connection with the Steve Jobs biopic he's working on) or those of his show's co-executive producer (who happens to be a major Sony bigwig)? In that case, the lips must stay sealed, and all of Jeff Daniels's depicted principles just wind up looking Dumb and Dumber To me.
Yet the worst may have come this morning, when word broke that these emails may have caused a near-apolcalytic result: it's now publicly known that Alex Trebek is talking about leaving Jeopardy!
----
The man has survived 30 years of being stuck in an almost immutable format; weeks of the smugness of Ken Jennings; ridicule of his peddling of old-people life insurance; fake mockery by a fake Sean Connery; and even heart disease, an in-room hotel burglary and a resulting broken achilles. Through it all, he soldiered on, but it took one bratty kid and one helicopter parent to drive him toward the potent potables and, possibly, off the show:
"If you all think I should retape the opening, I will," he wrote. "But I want to say that for 30 years I've defended our show against attacks inside and out. But it doesn't seem to operate both ways. When I'm vilified, corporate (and certainly legal) always seems to say 'don't say anything and it'll blow over,' and I'm not feeling support from the producers, and that disappoints the s—t out of me."
"If I'm making mistakes and saying things you don't like, maybe it's time for me to move on," Trebek wrote to in the email. "It's not a threat, but I want to let you know how I'm feeling." According to Radar, Trebek later "calmed down" after firing off the first email.
Probably because he realized he forgot to phrase it in the form of a question.
First came the embarrassing reveals of salaries, strategies and the general petulance of both actors and studio executives. Nothing new there. Now, further threats aimed at a particular film release from the studio led first to most major theatre chains pulling The Interview from their screens and, by day's end, Sony canceling the Christmas premiere of the film altogether. The hackers are apparently incensed by the comedy's gruesome depiction of the assassination of North Korea's Dear Leader. Somehow, Paramount escaped all this wrath when they made massive fun of the country's previous dictator in Team America: World Police. Maybe it's because hackers would never dare touch the makers of Star Trek.
Then we had the usual readings from the Book of Threats aimed at journalists and others who would dare mine this treasure trove of scandal. My favorite of these was Aaron Sorkin accusing any media outlet reporting on the hacked material of committing "moral treason"- and doing so just two weeks after the penultimate episode of The Newsroom, which glorified Old Journalism's right and duty to report on stolen material even if the theft was of sensitive government secrets. He even sent his main character to prison for 53 days in vindication of that principle; and yet, when the secrets in question are, say, his (in connection with the Steve Jobs biopic he's working on) or those of his show's co-executive producer (who happens to be a major Sony bigwig)? In that case, the lips must stay sealed, and all of Jeff Daniels's depicted principles just wind up looking Dumb and Dumber To me.
Yet the worst may have come this morning, when word broke that these emails may have caused a near-apolcalytic result: it's now publicly known that Alex Trebek is talking about leaving Jeopardy!
----
The man has survived 30 years of being stuck in an almost immutable format; weeks of the smugness of Ken Jennings; ridicule of his peddling of old-people life insurance; fake mockery by a fake Sean Connery; and even heart disease, an in-room hotel burglary and a resulting broken achilles. Through it all, he soldiered on, but it took one bratty kid and one helicopter parent to drive him toward the potent potables and, possibly, off the show:
"If you all think I should retape the opening, I will," he wrote. "But I want to say that for 30 years I've defended our show against attacks inside and out. But it doesn't seem to operate both ways. When I'm vilified, corporate (and certainly legal) always seems to say 'don't say anything and it'll blow over,' and I'm not feeling support from the producers, and that disappoints the s—t out of me."
"If I'm making mistakes and saying things you don't like, maybe it's time for me to move on," Trebek wrote to in the email. "It's not a threat, but I want to let you know how I'm feeling." According to Radar, Trebek later "calmed down" after firing off the first email.
Probably because he realized he forgot to phrase it in the form of a question.
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Date: 2014-12-18 01:51 pm (UTC)And as for the mom... if you let your child compete at *anything* they are going to eventually, inevitably lose. You see, that's how winners happen - the not-winners, sometimes including your kid - lose. Occasionally spectacularly so. If you or your kid can't handle the emotional baggage that might come with that, stay at home. You are setting a bad example for those of us who are trying to teach our kids that Real Life isn't fair, that losing leaves room for improvement, and that you have to fall short if you want to continue to challenge yourself. No failure, no opportunity for growth, and what a boring life that would be.