Is ‘The Interview’ a scam?

Watergate left me a skeptic.

Well, I was young at the time, but President Richard Nixon looked tricky. He looked like the kind of guy that would steal a child’s lollipop when no one was looking.

The political and economic hubbub of the Seventies, compounded by the Eighties, escalated by the ’90s and into 2000 has left generations scouring the fine print. Who do you trust anymore? It seems everyone has an agenda.

When word spread that snarky interdepartmental emails penned by Sony execs first circulated, it smacked of bad blood. You know, someone somewhere with just enough access to personal material didn’t get what he wanted so he released titillating info on today’s top stars. Or, someone with an agenda was looking to bring down the top brass. Either way, Sony got its share of headlines and doesn’t that fall under the realm of Oscar Wilde’s philosophy: “The only thing worse than being talked about it not being talked about.”

In show business, I imagine that applies more than in politics.

The tug of war between Hollywood and North Korea, if that is who is behind the hacking and Playstation outages, feels trite.

What is hard to dismiss, however, is the thinking behind the film. Beyond the lead actors, who thought it was a good idea to poke a stick at Kim Jongun, the North Korean leader whose volatility is unquestioned?

By now, everyone knows the film’s plot: a talk-show host and his producer fly to Pyongyang for an exclusive interview with Kim Jong-un, who they have been assigned by the CIA to kill. It’s a preposterous notion, I suppose, but wouldn’t it just as effective to name a fictitious leader of a make-believe country?

After initially announcing it was withholding the release of the film attracted Sony a larger audience when it played at selected theaters and online,

I suspect, than would have likely viewed it. There’s since been a series of tit-fortat retaliations, including President Obama’s decision Friday to impose additional sanctions on North Korea.

This news comes on the heels of a Norse report to the FBI. The cybersecurity firm believes a small group – including a disgruntled Sony staffer – was likely behind the hacking.

Hopefully, we don’t find ourselves seriously entangled with North Korea before the situation is ferreted out.

Until then, I vote with my feet and my money. In the case of “The Interview,” I have no intention of wasting either. And when Kim Jongun and his supporters come calling, I’d like to remind him Sony, not America, was behind this unnecessary use of time and resources.

SHELL ARMSTRONG

Executive Editor