While participating in the 2014 PBS genealogy series Finding Your Roots, Ben Affleck learned that he had an ancestor who owned slaves. While participating in the 2014 PBS genealogy series Finding Your Roots, Ben Affleck learned that he had an ancestor who owned slaves. Hacked Sony emails, posted publicly by WikiLeaks this week, show that the famed actor openly attempted to prevent the information from making it into the show’s final cut.
Gawker pointed out on Saturday morning that a July 2014 email chain between PBS host Prof.Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton show the pair cryptically conversing over the peculiar production request from a big name like Affleck.
Let’s go to the email chain. First Gates mentions a suppression request from a certain “megastar” (emphasis added):
Lynton responds that the situation is “tricky,” but that he suggests removing the fact if “no one else knows” and the show can get away with it (emphasis added again):
The pair then went back and forth about whether it’s worth compromising for “Batman,” and how it could hurt the brand to not give in to his request:
Affleck’s episode aired on October 14, 2014, and did not include anything about a slave-owning ancestor.
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