The Reagans vs. The Kennedys
It seems rather ironic that Hollywood doesn't want to make movies
about Ronald Reagan. Perhaps it's because virtually no one in the
industry can stand his belief system. Or it could be that Hollywood's
last effort was an exercise in character assassination. A made-for-TV
movie planned for CBS in late 2003 was ignominiously taken off the
schedule and moved to a premium pay-cable channel after outraged
conservative protests (which, full disclosure, I heartily joined).
Hollywood liberals, editorialists, network anchors, and TV critics
at that time exploded in horror over what The New York Times called the
"Soviet-style chill" caused by Reagan supporters. "Censorship!" was the
clarion call of the day. And week. And month.
On January 8, the owners of The History Channel announced that they
were scrubbing a splashy, $30 million, eight-hour miniseries on "The
Kennedys," starring Greg Kinnear as JFK and Katie Holmes (Mrs. Tom
Cruise) as Jackie. The Kennedy family objected, and demanded it be
pulled. On February 1, it was announced that a deal was struck to
unload this massive project on the Reelz Channel, a tiny network where
the project will be lost. "Censorship!"? This time, the free
speech-loving critics are as quiet as church mice.
I
can offer no comment on whether this Kennedy miniseries has any
redeeming historical or artistic merit. Some have complained that it
traffics in unproven tabloidish details like JFK explaining that he
needs to commit adultery to keep away his migraines. Some simply
complained that the creator, Joel Surnow, is a conservative who made
the series "24." But where are the Hollywood "artists" screaming about
creative freedom now?
Please recall what happened with "The Reagans." Barbra Streisand,
the wife of James Brolin (who played Reagan in that production),
proclaimed "The Republicans who deify President Reagan cannot stand
that some of the more unpleasant truths about his character and
presidency might be depicted in the movie." Brolin's agent, Jeff Wald,
added "we seem to be in a very oppressive era where they can censor
something before they even see it."
Judy Davis, the Australian actress who played Nancy Reagan as a
controlling witch, also complained about censorious America. "With the
climate that has been in America since September 11, it appears, from
the outside anyway, to not be quite as open a society as it used to
be...By open, I mean as free in terms of a critical atmosphere, and
that sort of ugly specter of patriotism."
TV critics were livid. Robert Bianco of USA Today asserted: "If
nothing else, this act of creative sabotage should put to rest the idea
that the media are liberal." Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News
snapped "If Hitler had more friends, CBS wouldn't have aired [its
Hitler miniseries] either."
The media went to academics like Martin Kaplan of USC (a former
Mondale speechwriter), who lamented "There's a well-organized
conservative movement in this country that's in charge of its version
of the truth, and they swing a big bat." Syracuse professor Robert
Thompson, an omnipresent TV expert for TV news shows, said
conservatives would keep on killing programs: "There's going to be a
battle cry 'Remember the Reagans' that's going to be like 'Remember the
Alamo.' The idea is we got the Reagans off the air, now let's see what
we can get off the air next."
None
of these critics seemed to care that leaked scripts clearly
demonstrated "The Reagans" had plenty of fiction, not "unpleasant
truths." Reagan declaring heartlessly that AIDS patients deserved to
die. Reagan naming the names of communists to Congress. Reagan aides
urging surgeons to lie about Reagan's condition after he was shot.
Nancy Reagan as a pill-abusing Mommie Dearest. Even Reagan sadly
declaring "I am the Antichrist."
In the case of the Kennedy miniseries, the lobbying from the
Kennedy family of the media companies owning the History Channel was
publicly known. Maria Shriver pressed leaders of NBC Universal, where
she worked for many years. Caroline Kennedy pressed Disney, since she
has a deal in the works to produce a 50-year anniversary book about her
father for Disney's book division. Nobody squealed about these women
generating a "Soviet-style chill."
In 2003, then-CNBC anchor Brian Williams asked a TV writer "Do you
believe what has happened here with this mini-series on CBS amounts to
extortion?" Katie Couric insisted then that "a lot of people are asking
whether the man once known as the Teflon President remains
untouchable." But when the Kennedys squash a miniseries, Williams and
Couric had nothing to say.
Hollywood tolerates all kinds of dishonest and exploitative trash
made for TV and the multiplex by insisting on its precious artistic
license, including the anti-Reagan garbage. But when "America's royal
family" picks up the telephone, suddenly "art" is as disposable as
dirty linen.
