Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson Debate "Is The Gaza War Really Over?"

At some point or another everyone finds themselves getting sucked into a heated political debate, and it appears that celebrities are no different. Thanks, once again, to the Sony hacker leak, we are getting some further insights into the thoughts of our favourite celebrities. This time it involves a reply-all chain email featuring Russell Simmons, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Ryan Seacrest, amongst others. The topic of said email being “Is the Gaza War Really Over?”

The first email came from Ryan Kavanaugh, the CEO of Relativity Media and executive producer of The Social Network. He responded to an email sent by Canadian Bacon producer Ron Rotholz, who, like Kavanaugh, apparently sends a lot of emails and articles out about anti-Semitism and Israel to a circle of colleagues and friends. Kavanaugh’s email is as follows:

On Aug 29, 2014, at 1:29 PM, "Ryan Kavanaugh" wrote:

The problem is that Moore ' law is kicking in. Before the summer 50 percent of college students supported israel, today less the 25 percent do. There are hate crimes against heed happening in almost every major metropolitan city, now including the US.

We have let this happen. And it's our job to keep another Hollacast from happening. Many of you may think that can't happen, that is extreme. My Grandmother told me over and over again remember no one believed it could happen and everyone thought the government would not allow it to. It took 5 years before the us stepped in, and 12 million dead.

If you pull newspapers from pre Hollacast it seems eerily close to our world today.

Kavanaugh and Rotholz's string of political emails seemed to get on the nerves of Natalie Portman who asked Kavanaugh to remove her from the list: "you should not be copying me publicly so that 20 people i don't know have my personal info," she admonished the producer. "i will have to change my email address now.

"Sorry," he replied. "You are right jews being slaughtered for their beliefs and cannes members calling for the boycott of anything Israel or Jewish is much much less important then your email address being shared with 20 of our peers who are trying to make a difference. my deepest apologies."

Rotholz, however, did not seem to have gotten Portman’s message. On the 28, he sent out an editorial from Bush U.N. ambassador John Bolton's think tank called "Is the Gaza War Really Over?" to a list of people that included Portman, Johansson, Seacrest, and, even Russell Simmons, who answered the Kavanaugh email quoted above:

From: Russell Simmons

Date:08/29/2014 1:56 PM (GMT-08:00)

To: Ryan Kavanaugh

Cc: Glenn Feig , Mark Canton , "Silverman, Ben" , Ron Rotholz , [Joel Mowbray], Amy Pascal , Jon Feltheimer , Jim Gianopulos , Ron Meyer , [David Seigal], Ryan Seacrest , Russell Simmons , Bart Rosenblatt , Jason Binn , Meir Teper , Gianni Nunnari , Jack Rapke , Roger Birnbaum , Jonathan Brandstein , Patrick Whitesell , Cassian Elwes , Beau Flynn , Geyer Kosinski , John Burnham , Solomon Courtney , Rabbi Marc Schneier , Ken Sunshine , Natalie Portman , Scarlett Johansson , [George Perez], Rabbi Steven Leder , Rabbi Marvin Hier , Elliot Brandt , Frank Luntz , David Shane , [Kobi Marom]

Subject: Re: Is the Gaza War Really Over?

Simple messaging from non Jews specifically from Muslims promoting peace and Israel's right to exist. Should be spread. (Possibly using statements from Hamas leadership in this branding exercise) could be a unifying force. U have ken sunshine on the chain. We have resources and the desire to win rather then loose the hearts of young Muslims and Jews. Our love for innocent suffering Palestinians must be a strong part of our messaging.

With great love all things are possible

The debate carried on for quite some time between Kavanaugh, Simmons, and Rotholz, with Portman only piping in again with a reply to Jamie Lynton saying, “How did I get on this list? Also Ryan seacrest?” Lynton simply replied, “this is nuts.”