Hollywood ignored George Clooney's attempt to condemn the Sony hackers

Hollywood ignored George Clooney&#039;s attempt to condemn the Sony hackers

(Image credit: Feng Li/Getty Images)

last updated 10 January 2015

Before Sony decided to cancel the theatrical release of The Interview, George Clooney passed a letter around Hollywood, asking heavyweights to sign it in support of the studio and the movie. He received exactly zero signatures.

"No one stood up, nobody took a stand," Clooney told Deadline.com. The letter read in part, "We know that to give in to these criminals now will open the door for any group that would threaten freedom of expression, privacy, and personal liberty. We hope these hackers are brought to justice but until they are, we will not stand in fear. We will stand together."

Clooney did not say who declined to sign, but did speak out about Sony's decision to pull the film. "This affects not just movies, this affects every part of business that we have," he said. "What happens if a newsroom decides to go with a story, and a country or an individual or corporation decides they don't like it?" Clooney added that he refuses to go along with the hacker's demands, saying, "I'm not going to be told we can't see the movie. That's the most important part. We cannot be told we can't see something by Kim Jong Un, of all f—ing people."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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