Clooney fails to win support for hacked Sony

George Clooney tried to rally support for Sony in the midst of a severe cyberattack on the studio, but the actor and film-maker says he couldn’t find anyone to stand with him.

In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, Clooney says he circulated a letter asking top Hollywood figures to show their support for the embattled studio and the satirical comedy,

The letter called for the industry to “fully support Sony’s decision not to submit to these hackers’ demands”, and to acknowledge “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.”

In essence, the letter was “basically saying … ‘we’re not going to give in to a ransom,’ ” Clooney told Deadline. “As we watched one group be completely vilified, nobody stood up. Nobody took that stand.”

As far as his petition, Clooney could not land a single signature. No one, the actor said, was brave enough to sign the petition, out of fear that doing so could make them vulnerable to a hacking attack like the one that befell Sony.

“It was a large number of people. It was sent to basically the heads of every place,” Clooney said in an interview published yesterday by the entertainment news website.

To a person, the reply was “‘I can’t sign this’,” he said.

Clooney’s petition decried the “chilling and devastating” cyber attack that revealed thousands of emails, scripts, and personal data at Sony, but said the implications go far beyond the company.