Amy Pascal is stepping down from her post as co-chaiman for Sony Pictures Entertainment, where she worked for several decades, just months after the massive hack of Sony data that leaked her emails mocking Barack Obama to a fellow Hollywood producer.
The longtime leader at Sony made racial jokes about Obama to producer Scott Rudin in messages leaked in the huge data breach in late November.
The night before a “stupid fundraising” breakfast Pascal would attend with Obama, Pascal and Rudin joked that his favorite movies were probably black-themed films like “Django Unchained” and “12 Years A Slave.” (RELATED: Sony Executives On Obama: ‘I Bet He Likes ‘The Butler”)
Pascal, who has donated to the Democratic party and Obama’s campaign, later said she was disappointed in herself and didn’t want those leaked emails to define her.
(Photo: Getty Images)
“Clearly, there are things that you say in a rash moment without thinking them through, and it takes 10 seconds to say something stupid. When it’s blasted and it might become the way you are defined as a human being, I have to say it. It’s just wrong. It’s wrong about me. And it’s wrong to do to anyone,” Pascal said.
Pascal’s contract is up in March, and she will reportedly begin a new production studio of her own that will focus on movies, television and theater.
“I have spent almost my entire professional life at Sony Pictures and I am energized to be starting this new chapter based at the company I call home,” Pascal said in a statement.
“I have always wanted to be a producer.”