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UNIVERSAL RIPS DRUDGE AFTER NASH BASH; ACADEMY VOTERS QUESTION 'BEAUTIFUL' OMISSIONS
**Update** XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FRI MARCH 08, 2002 10:34:29 ET XXXXX
Universal Pictures chairman Stacey Snider accused the DRUDGE REPORT on Thursday of "tumbling down" a "moral slope" after it was revealed how filmmakers of the Oscar nominated film A BEAUTIFUL MIND quietly left out all references to John Nash's anti-Semitic views.
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Jew Bashing scenes found in the book "A Beautiful Mind: The Life of the Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash" were completely scrubbed from the film, directed by Ron Howard and staring Russell Crowe -- even though actor Crowe's picture is featured on the paperback of the biography!
Snider, who is Jewish, blasted the DRUDGE REPORT in interviews with journalists gathered in Las Vegas for ShoWest 2002.
"Lines that should be clear to all of us have recklessly been crossed," Snider said, after it was revealed how Nash once wrote in a letter: "The root of all evil, as far as my personal life is concerned are Jews."
Author Sylvia Nasar's repeated references to Nash's feeling towards Jews were deliberately left off the screen, a move that has troubled some Academy voters.
Now three Academy members have come forward to reveal how they've switched their votes.
Explained one voter from New York: "When the movie was first released, they latched themselves to the book, putting Russell's face on the cover... issuing press releases about the 'life of John Nash'. I have one right here. And now they are distancing themselves from it all, saying it was only loosely based?"
As OSCAR voting comes to a close, Snider and MIND filmmakers are making great attempts to slowdown the growing controversy.
"These are just tabloid headlines," Snider told the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. "If you are a responsible writer, you don't take statements out of context that someone made during a 35-year battle with schizophrenia."
Snider told reporters that DRUDGE is being used by a rival studio to smear the UNIVERSALDREAMWORKS film.
DREAMWORKS heavy Jeffrey Katzenberg told one associate: "This is the lowest smear I've ever seen in this business!"
"When something goes on DRUDGE, it does not get there by accident," echoed SUN-TIMES columnist Roger Ebert on Friday's Howard Stern broadcast.
["No. Most psychotics do hate the Jews," barked Stern.]
Writes Nasar: "Before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, [Nash] explained, he was a left-wing Palestinian Arab refugee, a member of the PLO, and a refugee making a "g indent" in Israel's border, petitioning Arab nations to protect him from 'falling under the power of the Israeli state...
"Later when Nash became paranoid and embraced all sorts of strange delusions, he wrote letters to Newman and others addressed 'Jewboy'. He became obsessed with the state of Israel and talked about 'Krypto-Zionist conspiracies.'"
Also left out of Howard's BEAUTIFUL:
-- How Nash fathered an illegitimate son and refused to support him.
The filmmakers "completely left me out of it. They tried to pretend I don't exist," Nash mistress Elenor Stier explained.
-- Details of Nash's 1954 arrest for 'indecent exposure' and 'making a come-on to another man' in a public bathroom.
'American audiences don't care to see Russell Crowe getting it on with a man! It would just kill us at the boxoffice," a production source said earlier this year.
MIND received 8 nominations, including Best Picture, Director and Actor.
Ron Howard was named ShoWest director of the year Thursday night in Vegas.
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Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2002'BEAUTIFUL MIND' SUBJECT JOHN NASH BREAKS SILENCE ON MOVIE, OMISSIONS IN EXCLUSIVE 60 MINUTES INTERVIEW SUNDAY... MORE. THE MATH GENIUS ADDRESSES FILMMAKERS 'FICTIONALIZING' HIS LIFE WITH REPORTER MIKE WALLACE, INDUSTRY SOURCES TELL DRUDGE...
Drudge dredges up an Oscar scandal
Beautiful Mind hurt by allegation of anti-Semitism
Mar. 13, 01:00 EDT
Peter HowellIs the scoop a dupe?
Is Nash being unfairly bashed?
Will the Academy be thanked or spanked?
Inquiring minds want to know. So do the makers of A Beautiful Mind, who claim their front-running Oscar contender has been hurt by allegations of anti-Semitism that have surfaced on the muckraking Website the Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com).
Matt Drudge, the Johnny Scoop of the Internet age, has been digging for dirt about the movie, which stars Oscar-nominated Russell Crowe as John Nash, a math genius and Nobel laureate who has fought a lifelong battle with schizophrenia.
Since last November, Drudge has used his popular site to make unflattering comparisons between the Ron Howard-directed film and the Sylvia Nasar-authored source biography, also called A Beautiful Mind. Nasar's book turned up unsavoury aspects of Nash's life — his indecent exposure arrest, his illegitimate child, his hatred of the Jews — but none of these allegations appear in the largely sympathetic film.
Drudge seems to think the movie is a whitewash. Few people seemed to care, until last week. The movie has eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Actor and Director, and it is generally considered the strongest challenger to The Lord Of The Rings at the March 24 Academy Awards.
But then Drudge really zeroed in on the anti-Semitic angle, returning to the book again to resurrect a comment Nash wrote in a 1967 letter: "The root of all evil, as far as my personal life is concerned, are Jews." Nash was also apparently obsessed with what he called "Krypto-Zionist conspiracies."
Drudge printed the outraged reactions of three unnamed Oscar voters, who said they were changing their minds about A Beautiful Mind because of the new dish on Nash. "Why am I voting for this Jew hater?" one said. "I am a Jew! I feel sick to my stomach."
This dirty laundry aired at a bad time for A Beautiful Mind. Oscar voters are in the midst of filling out their final ballots. The allegations also surfaced just before last week's major movie industry trade fair, ShoWest 2002 in Las Vegas.
Universal and DreamWorks, the studios that teamed to make the movie, used their ShoWest pulpits to attempt damage control. As quoted in the Drudge Report, Universal Pictures chairman Stacey Snider damned the Web site for trading in "tabloid headlines" and "tumbling down ... (the) moral slope." DreamWorks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg called the anti-Nash allegations "the lowest smear I've seen in this business."
Snider did some name-calling of her own: she claimed Drudge is being used by a rival studio in a clandestine attempt to hurt the Oscar chances of A Beautiful Mind. She didn't name the studio she suspects of dirty tricks, thus implicating all of her rivals, and Drudge didn't answer the charge that he's been duped by a scheme to influence Oscar voters.
Nor did Drudge reply to my e-mail when I contacted him seeking his reaction to Snider's attack. That's not too surprising, since he's never been one to explain or apologize.
The incident has been left dangling — Drudge dropped the story from his front page yesterday — and the outcome is uncertain. Howard and Crowe were honoured with top awards this past weekend from their respective guilds representing directors and actors, indicating that Hollywood still loves A Beautiful Mind.
Is it really "the lowest smear" ever for Oscar campaigns? That's hard to judge, too. The Academy has weathered a lot of other "isms" in the past, including charges of racism, cronyism and nepotism. And the Oscars have always been controversial, the studio campaigns always fierce.
What has changed is how Web sites like The Drudge Report, dupes or not, are able to spread any kind of innuendo across the globe, instantly and always. It changes the nature of Hollywood gossip, small rocks creating very big ripples in a dirty pond.
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