Sony Hackers

Most of Hollywood is ripping Sony Pictures for its decision to pull "The Interview" from theaters -- but 2 guys from System of a Down understand why it had to be done.

Our photog spotted drummer John Dolmayan and bassist Shavo Odadjian in Santa Monica Saturday night -- and the guys stood up for Sony.

System is signed to Columbia Records -- which is owned by Sony -- and while John and Shavo aren't in total agreement with their company's decision ... they think the haters are forgetting one very important factor.

Dr. Evil is scoffing at the Guardians of Peace for sheer laziness.

The "Austin Powers" super villain appeared on "Saturday Night Live" with some solid advice to the GOP ... "It's easy to kill a movie, just move it to January."

But the evil doc's real beef is purely domestic, and very political.

Looks like the "Guardians of Peace" scored another victory ... Sony quietly gave in to another hacker demand by wiping almost all traces of "The Interview" from its social media pages.

Hackers threatened top level Sony execs Friday saying, "We want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately."

The movie studio almost immediately obliged ... the movie's Twitter page no longer has any tweets, the Facebook page has been deleted and all "Interview" footage has been wiped from its YouTube page.

Sad.

1:50 PM PST -- The hackers also released a message Saturday afternoon mocking the FBI ... saying, "The result of investigation by FBI is so excellent that you might have seen what we were doing with your own eyes. We congratulate you success. FBI is the BEST in the world."

It's all about Sony this week, and America and freedom and losing. So we gotta ask ...

North Korean officials should bottle their gall and sell it ... because they now say the can prove they're clean in the Sony hacking scandal, and if we don't believe them there will be "serious consequences."

Pyongyang's official KCNA says they've proposed a joint investigation with the U.S. to get to the bottom of it.

The official warns, "The U.S. should bear in mind that it will face serious consequences in case it rejects our proposal for joint investigation."

The North Koreans now say the U.S. is slandering them.

Listen up, President Obama ... Joe Flacco wants to make sure you know he's never been in "127 Hours" or "Spring Breakers" ... and he's definitely not the co-star of "The Interview."

POTUS made a huge flub during his news conference Friday -- mashing up James Franco's name with Joe's -- and the Ravens QB quickly responded.

The prez was talking about the Sony cyber attack and "The Interview" ... saying, "a satirical movie starring Seth Rogen and James FLACCO. I love Seth ... I love James."

Flacco razzed the president by tweeting, "@barackobama: It's James Franco, not James Flacco ;)" He also shouted out James ... welcoming him to the fam.

Still ... imagine Franco putting on the pads to take on J.J. Watt and the Texans this weekend. THAT would be awesome.

President Obama just threw down the gauntlet ... saying Sony blundered by pulling "The Interview."

It was inevitable that someone would ask Obama about the Sony mess at Friday's news conference and Obama didn't mince words. He wished out loud that Sony would have called him before making the call to yank the film.

Judy Smith -- the inspiration behind the Olivia Pope character on "Scandal" -- is on the case ... the Sony case, TMZ has learned.

Sources connected with the studio tell us ... Smith has been quietly advising Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal. We're told her focus is dealing with the torrent of criticism over the studio dropping "The Interview."

Smith runs Smith & Company, one of the premiere crisis management firms in the country.

Our sources tell us Smith has been especially helpful to Sony because of her deep contacts with the government, and she has been involved on both the D.C. and Hollywood fronts.

We're told Smith and other members of the Sony crisis team have been behind some of the recent messaging ... that this is not just a Sony issue but an industry issue ... which takes some of the heat off Sony.

We're also told the crisis team is actually pleased with George Clooney's attack as it relates to creative and powerful people in the entire industry -- not just Sony -- taking a stand.

And we're told the crisis team is also pushing the message ... Sony's decision was in large part to protect the safety and welfare of its employees.

We're told the ultimate mission is to somehow contain the PR fallout and navigate a way forward.

The Sony hackers are not satisfied -- they've unleashed a new threat ... trying to ensure "The Interview" NEVER gets released in any format.

Several top level execs at Sony Pictures got the new message which reportedly said, "We want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately."

They also demanded "The Interview" never come out on DVD, pay-per-view, or V.O.D.

CNN first reported the latest message ... which also reminds the Sony execs the hackers still have all of their "private and sensitive data."

The hackers told execs they'd made a "very wise" decision to cancel the release, and shouldn't make any new trouble for themselves.

The FBI is confirming North Korea is responsible for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures -- and it has a ton of evidence to back it up.

The agency says the North Korean government's fingerprints are all over the attack -- which used specific malware and IP addresses connected to previous attacks ... that it knows were carried out by N. Korea.

The FBI is treating the hack as an act of terrorism intended to "inflict significant harm on a U.S. business and suppress the right of American citizens to express themselves."

George Clooney sent a petition to the most powerful people in Hollywood -- asking them to take a stand against the cyber-terrorists and in favor of freedom -- yet not a single person would sign.

Clooney wrote his petition before Sony pulled the plug on "The Interview." It reads, "We know that to give in to these criminals now will open the door for any group that would threaten freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberty ... we will not stand in fear."

The actor told Deadline, no one wanted to be the first to sign their name, and it was clearly out of blind fear. A frustrated Clooney said, "We cannot be told we can't see something by Kim Jong-un, of all f***ing people."

Clooney believes what was really going on is that everyone was afraid their emails would be hacked, so they compromised freedom of expression to save their own hides.

Former NBA All-Star Kenny Anderson says Sony Pictures absolutely did the right thing by pulling "The Interview" out of theaters ... and adds he can't figure out why they made it in the first place.

Kenny actually met Kim Jong-un when he went to North Korea in January as part of Dennis Rodman's goodwill team of ex-NBA players. He tells TMZ Sports ... "I was trippin' when I saw the movie preview. Why would they want to ruffle their feathers? They already hate America."

Kenny says Kim Jong-un actually treated him very well while he was there -- but admits he was ignorant to the atrocities committed by Kim's regime ... until he got back stateside.

He says he's confused about the plan to greenlight 'Interview' .. but adds, "I think they might've been trying to make Americans aware of some of the stuff that happens over there."

Former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Hunstman, Jr. isn't scared of North Korea and doesn't think Sony should be either ... and he thinks Sony screwed up by shelving 'The Interview.'

Our D.C. photog felt Hunstman was the perfect person to ask, since he's North Korea adjacent, having served as U.S. Ambassador to both Singapore and China.

The former presidential hopeful had some friendly advice for Sony: Don't let anybody stand in the way of what you do best ... making movies.

Al Sharpton is willing to give Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal a chance to prove she'll do the right thing for African Americans, but he says, "The proof is in the pudding and you don't know until you eat it."

Sharpton tells TMZ he met with Pascal for 90 minutes Thursday in NYC, and she admitted she was "wrong and silly" to engage producer Scott Rudin in speculation that Prez Obama only likes "black movies."

Sharpton says the head of the National Urban League was also on hand and told her they were "outraged" by her comments. She said it was "an isolated incident," but Sharpton retorted it was indicative of a bigger problem in Hollywood ... no blacks at the top.

Seth Rogen is back in the saddle, showing up at Sony Thursday morning, but we're told he feels betrayed by the studio's decision to shelve "The Interview."

If you believe Rob Lowe ... Seth was fuming over Sony's decision Wednesday. Rob -- who was also in the movie -- said he and Seth were in lockstep and that Sony showed cowardice by crumbling.

Sources connected to Seth tell TMZ ... Rob did indeed chitchat with Seth at JFK about the Sony decision, and it wasn't hard to read between the lines that Seth is pissed.

It makes sense ... during the premiere in Hollywood last week ... Seth praised Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal for having the balls to stand up to the hackers.

The Sony lot probably seems smaller today.

Sony is telling people who signed up for their studio tour to take a walk ... anywhere but on the Sony lot.

Sources at the studio tell TMZ ... their tour has been put on ice since the hacker attack ... and a big reason is that its 2 hour walking could pose a big threat to Sony. The tour is touted as a behind the scenes look at a working studio. The idea of someone straying from the group is too real a possibility.