Someone needs to teach the people at Sony Pictures the definition of the word irony. The company has decided not to allow any of the stars of its new film “The Interview” to be interviewed on the red carpet at its official premiere tonight because of its current hacking scandal.
While writers will be allowed to attend, Sony has banned all broadcast media from the event.
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The Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy’s poor portrayal of North Korea was cited by hackers as the reason for their having broken into Sony’s systems and publicly releasing many of the company’s embarrassing secrets.
Someone once defined the death of irony as when something happens that is so absurd the event in question cannot be satirized. This is clearly the case here as Sony fears that its people will be pummeled with questions about the hacking if they are allowed to talk to the press at the premiere.
Sony has also beefed up the premiere’s security. A company official said, “Security is always a concern at premieres, and this is certainly no different. We will have appropriate security at the premiere.”
While some have denied that North Korea was behind the attack, apparently the Korean language was used in the code utilized by the hackers. That code was also found in similar attacks made against South Korea, CNN has reported.
Amit Yoran, former National Cybersecurity director, told CNN, “It’s important to realize, depending on how sophisticated your adversary is, they may be routing attacks through a certain country, or they may be using known attacks from a certain language code base to throw your attribution thoughts off.”
In other “The Interview” news, Reuters is reporting that Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai tried to get the film’s content “toned down” after complaints and threats from North Korea. This was according to private e mails revealed by the hackers. Hirai reportedly interceded with Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The film’s star and writer was not moved and made light of the situation.
In response to requests to alter a scene where the head of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un catches fire in the movie he said, “The head explosion can’t be more obscured than it is because we honestly feel that if it’s any more obscured, you won’t be able to tell it’s exploding and the joke won’t work.”
