According to recent leaked Sony emails, Oscar-winner Ben Affleck asked the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to edit out a particular information uncovered by the show, "Finding Your Roots" which he did not want the public to know.

During the course of the show's production, it turned out that Affleck's ancestors were slave owners.

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According to the New York Post, the email, part of the 170,000 emails and documents recently republished by whistle-blowing WikiLeaks site last week, it was revealed that Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the show's host was concerned about compromising the show's "integrity."  In his letter to Sony CEO Michael Lynton he asked for advice on what he should do regarding Affleck's request to edit out a portion of the episode.  "He's a megastar. What do we do?," he wrote.

In the email chain dated July 2014, Gates said that it was the first time a guest had asked them to edit out the slave-owning portion uncovered in the show and that censoring a segment is in violation of PBS rules. He was concerned too that once they " open the door to censorship," they lose their integrity, he wrote in the emails.

According to Gates, they have had four or five guests who descend from slave owners, including Ken Burns and Anderson Cooper.

Lynton wrote back and advised Gates to honor Affleck's wishes and said that as long as nobody knows about the information, then it would be good to take it out.

In the emails, Affleck's name was never mentioned, only referring to him as "Batman" or the "megastar" filming in Detroit.   "Batman vs. Superman" was shot in Detroit.

When Affleck did appear on the episode of "Finding Your Roots," on Oct. 14, indeed, his slave-owning ancestor was not mentioned. Instead, they went with the unusual story of one of his ancestors who was an occultist after the Civil War.

When the news of the email exchanges came out this weekend, it caused a stir on Twitter with some people saying that Affleck uses his star power to influence the PBS show, while others took his side.

Affleck's reps cannot be reached for comment.

TagsBen Affleck, slave-owners, ancestors, Finding Your Roots, Sony hacked emails