J Lawr Makes Less Than Male Costars, Sony Hack Reveals

The fallout continues from the massive Sony data hack. The latest emails to leak reveal some very frustrating information about Hollywood's pervasive gender wage-gap problem. Specifically, the fact that top box-office draws like Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid less than their male costars for American Hustle.

An email from 2013 obtained by The Daily Beast discussed the percentage of back-end compensation points each member of the Hustle ensemble would receive. At that point, the percentages went:

Now, remember that Amy Adams received a Best Actress nomination for her role in American Hustle. Bradley Cooper had a role that only garnered a Best Supporting Actor nod. So, why is he still getting 2% more back-end points?

Studio execs and attorneys did go to bat for Lawrence and Adams. According to the email, Lawrence had previously been at 5%, but the studio knew she should be compensated for more. Except, that pitted the two female costars against one another. Any additional points given to Lawrence would mean that Adams' takeaway needed to increase, too, since Adams had the larger role in the film. No one seemed willing to agree to that deal, so Lawrence was simply increased to the same 7% Adams would net.

Sony exec Amy Pascal could only say that the emails did paint a grim picture of the gender pay gap at the studio — especially given the fact that, according to The Daily Beast, Lawrence was "far and away the biggest star of the picture, since Hustle was green-lit after The Hunger Games."

The only silver lining in this whole exchange? Jennifer Lawrence's email address apparently involves the phrase "peanut butt." (The Daily Beast)