PAGE 10A
Thursday, October 28, 1999
Laredo Morning Times
ENTERTAINMENT
‘60 Minutes’ unhappy
with tobacco movie
BY DAVID GERMAIN
AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES — Here’s a
switch: “60 Minutes,” the TV
newsmagazine that built its reputation with its pitiless, prosecutorial style, doesn’t like the way
it’s being portrayed in the
media.
CBS says the upcoming movie
“The Insider” paints an unfair
picture of how the show’s producers and star correspondent
Mike Wallace handled a confrontation with the tobacco
industry.
Filmmakers say “The Insider”
takes some artistic license but
is a faithful depiction of what
happened. The movie, starring
Al Pacino and Russell Crowe,
opens in theaters Nov. 5.
“The Insider” tells the story of
former Brown & Williamson
tobacco executive Jeffrey
Wigand, a whistle-blower who
agreed to go on “60 Minutes” in
1995 with accusations of perjury
and other wrongdoing by the
industry.
At first, CBS caved to pressure
from its lawyers who worried
that B&W would sue the network for encouraging Wigand to
violate a confidentiality clause
he signed with the tobacco
company. A version of the segment without the explosive
Wigand material ran instead.
The full report eventually
aired, however.
“60 Minutes” and CBS have
been attacking the movie for
months, sight unseen. CBS
executives have tried to get into
advance
screenings,
but
“Insider” director Michael Mann
says he has refused to let them
in because of the network’s
“unrelenting” hostility toward the
film.
The film is being distributed by
Disney, which owns CBS rival
ABC.
Drawing on reports from people who have seen the movie,
CBS News complains that “The
Insider” presents a distorted
view of the facts.
“I resent being used in a dishonest way to create fictional
drama,” Wallace said.
His strongest objection is over
a scene in which Christopher
Plummer, who plays the newsman, agrees with the CBS management decision to yank the
full tobacco story and substitute
the edited one.
Wallace said he went along
with the edited segment only
when it became clear that CBS
would not broadcast the Wigand
interview. He said he figured
“once we got that on the air,
we’ll wait for another day.”
“If I had caved in, I would be
not happy to admit it, but I would
acknowledge it,” Wallace said.
“The fact is, I fought to get it on
the air. There was hell to pay
around ‘60 Minutes.’ Everybody
knew how I felt.”
Former “60 Minutes” producer
Lowell Bergman, who is portrayed by Pacino, said that
although Wallace eventually
championed the Wigand story,
he did not push to get it on the
air early on.
“No one was happy with the
decision,” said Bergman, who
participated in developing “The
Insider.” “But I didn’t witness
anyone at ‘60 Minutes’ in any
meeting saying, ‘We’re going to
go public, we’re going to appeal
this higher up,’ and that
includes Wallace.”
B&W executives, who also
have not seen “The Insider,” also
are concerned about fictional elements of the movie. In a scene at
a golf driving range, Wigand is
shadowed by a menacing man,
presumably a tobacco-industry
thug. Wigand said that scene
was made up for the film.
“Which gives you pause if that
never happened,” said B&W
spokesman
Mark
Smith.
“Doesn’t it question the whole
veracity of the film?”
CBS News President Andrew
Heyward said the film omits
important details — such as
Wallace’s commentary at the
end of the abridged tobacco
segment, in which he expressed
dismay that the news side lost
out to the lawyers.
Heyward said Bergman, who
ferreted out Wigand and talked
him into the interview, tailored
the story to make himself a
hero. “I’d love the chance at the
end of my career to influence a
screenplay in which I could cast
Al Pacino as me,” Heyward
National Geographic has new atlas
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Combining more than a century of traditional mapping
with modern technology, the
National Geographic Society
is issuing a massive new
world atlas and making its
maps available on the
Internet.
“It’s a great day for maps,” the
society’s chief cartographer,
Allen Carroll, said in announc-
ing the steps Wednesday at a
news conference at 38 degrees
54 minutes 18 seconds north
latitude, 77 degrees 2 minutes
18 seconds west longitude.
“Not too many years ago,
maps were pretty passive
things. Back then, maps were
kind of like nouns, now they’ve
become active verbs,” Carroll
said of the book-Internet combination.
‘Peanuts’ creator plans for museum
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) —
Snoopy is getting a new doghouse in the scenic groves of
California’s wine country.
“Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz
is planning a 17,000 square-foot
AP Photo
ON SCREEN: Al Pacino plays an investigative reporter/producer in ‘The Insider’.
said.
Pacino disagreed, saying that
Bergman and Wigand, played
by Crowe, are not glorified, and
are merely presented as ordinary people in unusual circumstances.
As for Wallace, Pacino said:
“I’ve admired him for years. I
think he’s done some extraordinary things. I don’t think he has
to worry about his legacy from
this picture. I think his legacy’s
intact.”
Plummer also said he finds
nothing in the film that Wallace
or “60 Minutes” should take
offense to.
“I played Wallace with as much
respect as I have for him as a
journalist,” Plummer said. “I
tried to show all the colors he
has up there on the screen.
He’s a theatrical figure, but we
also showed his human side.
I’m sure he can’t deny that he
has one.”
museum in Santa Rosa for Charlie
Brown, Lucy and all the other characters in his comic strip.
The Santa Rosa City Council
approved zoning for the building Tuesday.