The Big Event

Giakkas, Christos. "Red Theater Curtain". 08/29/2014 via pixabay.
CC0 Public Domain.

For it to be a controversy there has to be a jumping off point, the point where something went wrong and some one or some group got angry. In this post I will be outlining the big even of my controversy.

Monday, November 24th 2014 Sony headquarters in Culver City, California experienced something strange; an image of a skull with long red bony fingers flashed on every computer simultaneously along with a message warning them to cooperate. The Sony platform had been hacked, presumably by North Korea as an attempt to keep Sony from releasing their newest movie, “The Interview”. As a result of this hack that lasted nearly a month much of Sony’s secret information: pay logs, employment records, manuscripts, emails, etcetera, was no longer hidden from the private eye.  On December 12th 2014 emails regarding the pay for actors starring in the Sony picture “American Hustle” surfaced. Many reporters wrote adaptations on the issue but the actors stayed quiet as they examined the issue themselves. 

Flash forward to October 12th, 2015. After actresses of all caliber have been speaking out against wage gaps between men and women, like Patricia Arquette at the 2015 Oscars, Jennifer Lawrence publishes a newsletter using Lenny.com. In her letter she explains that she feels taken advantage of and mistreated by the wage issues that she has faced. She describes what was outlined in the leaked emails, Lawrence the co-star of Bradley Cooper in American Hustle made 7% commission while Cooper pocketed 9%. Lawrence’s letter has reignited the debate; do women actresses deserve to make as much as men?