Producer sorry for calling Angelina Jolie a ‘spoiled brat’, as Sony leaks roil Hollywood

Oscar-winning producer Scott Rudin has apologised for calling Angelina Jolie a “spoiled brat” and making racially offensive jokes about US President Barack Obama’s presumed taste in movies.

The comments were made in a series of leaked email exchanges between Rudin and Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal, who also apologised Thursday. It was yet another embarrassment in the ongoing Sony hacking scandal, in which highly sensitive material is being leaked almost daily.

“Private emails between friends and colleagues written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity, even when the content of them is meant to be in jest, can result in offence where none was intended,” Rudin said in a statement to industry site Deadline.

“I made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny, but in the cold light of day, they are in fact thoughtless and insensitive — and not funny at all. To anybody I’ve offended, I’m profoundly and deeply sorry, and I regret and apologise for any injury they might have caused.”

In a statement released soon after by Sony, Pascal called her comments “insensitive and inappropriate” and “not an accurate reflection of who I am.” She said that although the emails were “stolen,” she accepts “full responsibility for what I wrote and apologise to everyone who was offended.”

In a tweet later Thursday, “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes said the comments were “racist,” not merely “racially insensitive.”