LOS ANGELES — It took about a week of rummaging around, but someone finally found an exchange within the trove of executives' emails stolen from Sony that forced a personal, highly public apology due to their racially insensitive nature.

And the way things are going, it can't possibly be the last.

Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Amy Pascal, already under fire for a slew of leaked emails containing disparaging comments, and Scott Rudin, one of Hollywood's most powerful and prolific producers, joked in a recent back-and-forth about what movies President Barack Obama would like. And yes, it got uncomfortably racial.

Published Thursday, the emails begin as Pascal asks Rudin for advice on what to say when she meets Obama at a breakfast hosted by DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the president's closest friends (and biggest donors) in Hollywood. The infamously incorrigible Rudin's initial reply was innocuous enough: “Would he like to finance some movies.”

But Pascal's response kicked off an offending sequence that, in today's climate, is the stuff that brings down industry giants: “I doubt it," she wrote. "Should I ask him if he liked DJANGO?,” undoubtedly referring to Quentin Tarantino's brutal depiction of slavery in Django Unchained.

Then Rudin: “12 YEARS.”

The back-and-forth continued. Pascal: "Or the butler. Or think like a man?" Rudin: "Ride-along. ... I bet he likes Kevin Hart."

First published by Buzzfeed, the exchange was quickly picked up by the Hollywood trades and, like every bit of Sony hack nastiness before it, found its way to the mainstream.

Though much of the correspondence unearthed so far was the usual inter-Hollywood sniping — cringe-worthy sentiments, but not the stuff of public apology — this report changed the dynamic of the Sony hack story, veering from behind-the-scenes intrigue at a major studio into offensive racial stereotyping at Sony's highest level. Involving a sitting president, no less.

On Thursday morning, the mea culpas came fast.

Pascal wrote in a statement to Variety (the Hollywood trade she openly dissed in one of her emails): “The content of my emails to Scott were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am. Although this was a private communication that was stolen, I accept full responsibility for what I wrote and apologize to everyone who was offended.”

Rudin, speaking exclusively to Deadline.com, which he consistently favors with scoops and intel, had this to say: “Private emails between friends and colleagues written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity, even when the content of them is meant to be in jest, can result in offense where none was intended."

“I made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny, but in the cold light of day, they are in fact thoughtless and insensitive — and not funny at all. To anybody I’ve offended, I’m profoundly and deeply sorry, and I regret and apologize for any injury they might have caused.”

But the damage was done. And not just for Rudin, Pascal and Sony.

The report sets the table for a significantly more personal level of ugliness that's likely to spill out of the several terabytes of information leaked by the shadowy hacking group that calls itself Guardians of Peace. The media are not even close to combing through it all. There is enough sensitive correspondence out there now to be mined for months, if not years — all depending on the Internet's appetite for dirt on Hollywood. Which, we are swiftly finding out, is significant.

Amy Pascal, Co-chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and actor Jonah Hill. Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Pascal, Rudin and the rest of the victims of the malicious hack at Sony had already endured catty remarks about Kevin Hart, Angelina Jolie, Adam Sandler and more — offhanded comments that surprised no one in their content and tone, and at worst will forever ruin professional relationships. But the release of the Obama tête-à-tête was not an exposé of studio business, which thus far has been the media's excuse for rooting around in materials that were obtained illegally.

It was a clear indication of the media's appetite for destruction.

That isn't to say they weren't fair game. The hackers' info dump was so swift, complete and overwhelming that even if Sony had some legal recourse to protect its private assets — like what Jennifer Lawrence, et al did in the wake of the Fappening — the studio was over a barrel before it could even properly lawyer up. There is no damage control when the damage amounts to obliteration.

Even before the Pascal/Rudin transgression, prominent Hollywood figures were snapping back at the media for its vampirism. The Lego Movie and Jump Street writer-producer-director Philip Lord was among the first to float the idea that publishing details from the hack was in some way untoward:

The Sony hack is terrorism. Publishing the information aids terrorists. Sony execs are victims, and filmmakers. We should stand with them. — philip lord (@philiplord) December 10, 2014

And comparisons to the celebrity nude hack were soon to follow. From Judd Apatow:

Releasing private Sony e mails to hurt people is the same as releasing nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence. Why are they ok to print? — Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) December 11, 2014

.@DrewAtHitFix @HitFix in life we all decide what is right and I think printing private information because evil people leaked it is wrong. — Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) December 10, 2014

"Is there anyone in the movie business who hasn’t been on the blistering end of an email rant one day and a wet kiss the next? Where’s the news?" wrote Deadline reporter Mike Fleming, to whom Rudin's apology was flipped Thursday.

Megan Ellison, one of Hollywood's most prominent new financiers and the subject of some of Sony's snarkiest leaked emails, reacted with a dose of self-awareness

Bipolar 28 year old lunatic..? I always thought of myself more as eccentric. pic.twitter.com/EYKyXOGUEb — Megan Ellison (@meganeellison) December 10, 2014

Rian Johnson, who is directing one of the Star Wars spinoffs for Disney/Lucasfilm, joined the Hollywood chorus calling for restraint:

This Sony hack is some vile shit. My policy: don't click & note who's posting stolen emails it so I can continue to not click in the future. — Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) December 10, 2014

At least one entertainment reporter, TheWrap's film reporter Jeff Sneider, let it be known that he was personally refusing to report on the topic.

@robertliefeld I'm against reporting on it, not sharing it or enjoying it personally. Was asked to write about the leaks today & I refused. — Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) December 11, 2014

Meanwhile, others openly lamented the cascade of embarrassment for Sony, including HitFix awards writer Kris Tapley.

What's happening is entertainment journalists are desperate to feel like the Fourth fucking Estate for once in their lives. #SonyHack — Kristopher Tapley (@kristapley) December 11, 2014

And blogger/critic James Rocchi compared recent reporting on the hack's revelations to rubbernecking gone wrong.

Re: Sony hack, it's one thing to slow down as you pass a car wreck; it's another to pull over, get out & rifle the trunk for valuables. — James Rocchi (@jamesrocchi) December 10, 2014

The sad truth is, there is no putting this toothpaste back in the tube.

While headlines like 'A minimally talented spoiled brat': Hollywood movie producer's attack on Angelina Jolie revealed have proven to be irresistible celebrity-gawking clickbait, posing as a peek behind the corporate curtain, the Pascal/Rudin exchange has pulled the whole mess into another, darker, infinitely more insidious realm. Because this won't be the last massive hack, and our collective response to it is telling.

When a group like Guardians for Peace hacks the next corporation, or the U.S. government — or even Google's gmail itself, potentially exposing the private correspondence of millions of private citizens — it's clear now that the press won't rest until the damage is maximized, the guise of "newsworthiness" stretched until it buckles.

Inevitably, people across Hollywood, across corporate America and citizens the world over may think hard about what "privacy" really means. As it becomes more illusory with each new hack, the only way to really protect oneself from prying eyes seeing sensitive correspondence is not to type them out in the first place.

Maybe it's time to bring back the payphone after all.