I like James Franco. I like Seth Rogen. I appreciate their reckless abandon and intelligence. I hope that this fiasco involving their latest joint effort, The Interview, doesn't ruin or retard their careers. Not that the movie is on a par with Ishtar, Gigli or any of the Twilight movies (not that I saw either of the first two; I had to sit through one of the last series, although any guy would have done the same thing were he in my position).
No, I refer to the deleterious effects the movie is having on the studio that produced and distributed it, Sony Pictures. The hacking scandal is said to possibly bring the studio to its knees which, if it does, would be partial payback for the Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean comfort women who were dragooned into service by the Japanese during World War II. I, for one, would guffaw mightily were that to happen. Frankly, were it to happen, I wouldn't weep at all, except for the principle that free speech was infringed by the very tyranny that the First Amendment was designed to counterbalance.
Whether movies are made there or at any of the liberal bastions of cinema really doesn't concern me. I vote with my dollar when it comes to movies. No longer will I watch a Robert Redford, Oprah, Chris Rock or Tom Cruise movie simply because of their strident politics (as practiced by the first three) or by simply being the most outrageous wingnut on the planet (the last one; and while I'm at it, how on God's green earth was it decided that he was so gorgeous? He's short, has a hooked nose and is prone to sophomoric behavior. But I digress.). Nay, whether Sony survives or not is really none of my concern. I'm not rooting for its downfall, but if it were to happen, I hope it's epic.
Instead, what's captured my imagination is the outing of liberal hypocrisy in Hollywood with the release of emails sent by Sony executives. These champions of the left were shown to be hypocrites, two-faced, lying misanthropes of the first order. Between latent racism as evidenced by the emails about President Obama -- the Left's champion, remember -- and the bizarre comments about white actresses adopting black babies to the outright rude comments about stars such as Angelina Jolie being marginally talented brats, I don't know whether to laugh or cheer. Not because I agree with the content, mind you, but because these remarkable hypocrites are being shown for what they are.
Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that sunshine is the best disinfectant, and no recent example may prove that theorem as well as this email hacking scandal. I doubt anything will change much: Mea culpas will fly, blackmail will be paid -- Al Sharpton already has imitated Usain Bolt to extract his coups from Sony -- and the public will forget. Movies that weren't greenlighted before will be made no matter their lack of box office appeal. In short, Sony will be made to pay.
With any luck, this trend will make it around Hollywood. If President Obama's poor showing didn't do enough to silence the usually voluble Hollywood set, this surely will. I can only imagine how the other studios are racing with the clock to protect their networks from cyber attack. Right now, it's good to be a geek in Hollywood. The movie Revenge of the Nerds is being played out before out eyes -- well, behind the scenes, anyway.
What would be truly interesting would be if the MSM's emails were aired. It would be a hoot to see what the protective Fourth Estate has been saying during the Obama years. I doubt that there would be any difference between what would be found there and what has been found at Sony. The only difference is that the MSM could at least choose not to report it, using the same tactic for itself that it's used to guard the President for six years.
And for all this we have James Franco -- and Ivy League graduate -- and Seth Rogen to thank. Finally, someone from Canada has righted the cultural imbalance created when it foisted Justin Beiber on the United States. And every more incredulously, at last the Ivy League has done something right by the country.
Pigs must be flying in a frozen hell.
Perhaps the Cubs will win the World Series in my lifetime after all.
(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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