The controversy surrounding The Interview

The controversy continues! The Interview is turning out to be THE most controversial film of all time. Eminem admits he’s gay in a hilarious cameo and the world over reacts…It’s quite ironic that the spotlight is off North Korea and onto far more important things, like a global superstar admitting he is gay. Eminem shows himself to be a far superior actor than Seth Rogan and James Franco – he plays deadpan perfectly whilst Franco hams it up and goes way over the top. (This scene isn’t exactly a spoiler, though it does reveal the opening sequence of the movie.)

(To watch the scene in Creation 5, just tap here.)

It isn’t just the ‘gay scene’ that is causing controversy. There are two more issues – without including the delicate North Korea situation. The first is a copyright infringement allegation. Sony is about to be sued for using copyrighted music without permission and without compensating the artist.

Yoon Mi-rae (real name Natasha Shanta Reid) is a US-born hip hop and R&B singer who currently releases music on the Feel Ghood Music label. At the beginning of 2013 she hit the Nº1 spot on the Korean music charts and reached the same heights on the Billboard Kpop Hot 100 list with her song Touch Love. Apparently she was in negotiations with Sony to have her track Pay Day appear in The Interview and even though no agreement was reached, the music was used anyway.

“There were initial discussions for using Pay Day in the movie, but at some point, the discussions ceased and we assumed that it would not follow through,” Feel Ghood Music says. “However, after the movie was released, we learned that the track had been used without permission, legal procedure, or contracts.”

“We will be taking legal action against Sony Pictures as well as DFSB, the agency that had been carrying out the discussion regarding the use of the track,” the label says.

It does seem unlikely that the legal action will come to anything much and hopefully Yoon Mi-rae should not only be able to secure a good amount of cash but she has now raised her profile in a way that would have never been possible if Sony had gone ahead and paid her before the release.

The second controversial issue is Sony’s battle with rampant piracy issues – the latest figures suggest that the movie has been downloaded over 1.5 million times illegally.

All this controversy should make you want to see the movie – even if it’s only to annoy a really cruel dictator.