Boys club ... Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were paid less than their male co-stars and director for their work in American Hustle. Source: Supplied

But even Jennifer Lawrence has to deal with the glass ceiling when it comes to her paycheck.

Emails leaked to the public via the ongoing Sony cyber hack scandal reveal the charming megastar was paid less than her male director and co-stars in last year’s American Hustle.

The film was a surprise hit and a critical favourite, notching $A304 million at the global box office and 10 Academy Award nominations.

Box office darling ... Lawrence is the star of the Hunger Games and X-Men franchises. Source: Supplied

Critical favourite ... She won an Oscar for her work on Silver Linings Playbook. Source: Getty Images

Lawrence, a freshly minted Oscar winner at the time of its release, was a major part of the studio’s sales pitch to audiences.

But leaked emails reveal she and co-star Amy Adams were paid seven “points” (a proportion of the film’s profits), compared to the nine points paid to her male colleagues Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper and director David O’Russell.

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Serious coin ... From left, Adams, Cooper, Renner, Bale, Lawrence. Source: AP

An email dated December 5, 2013 (a week before the film’s release) sent by Andrew Gumpert, president of business affairs and administration for Columbia Pictures, the Sony subsidiary which financed American Hustle, reveals the imparity.

In the email to Sony co-chair Amy Pascal, Gumpert writes: “Got a steve warren/gretchen rush call that it’s unfair the male actors get 9% in the pool and jennifer is only at 7pts.” Warren and Rush are Lawrence’s lawyers.

“You may recall Jennifer was at 5 (amy was and is at 7) and WE anted in 2 extra points for Jennifer to get her up to 7. If anyone needs to top jennifer up it’s megan. BUT I think amy and Jennifer are tied so upping JL, ups AA.”

AA refers to Amy Adams; Megan is Megan Ellison, the head of Annapurna Pictures, which co-financed the film.

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Paid less but handsomely rewarded ... Lawrence won a Golden Globe for the role. Source: AFP

Boys v girls .... Adams and Lawrence won Golden Globes for the film, none of the male stars did. Source: AP

The embarrassing leak is the latest in the hacking scandal engulfing Sony for the past 10 days.

The recipient of the Lawrence email is the same executive, Amy Pascal, who made revolting racist jokes to producer Scott Rudin in an email exchange about Barack Obama.

And in another email conversation between them, Rudin told Pascal that Angelina Jolie was “spoiled”, “talentless” and “a celebrity, that’s all”.