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TVInews
107 George Clooney Takes Lessons from his Dad, Nick Clooney
of Kentucky, in completing Edward R. Murrow's, "Good Night,
and Good Luck," -
by Parlaying Movies -
for $$$$.
A
TVInews Photo: George Clooney taken at - People For
The American Way.
39th Week of 2005 /
As most people know,
Kentucky has come up with some great actors, singers,
inventors, politicians, whiskey, fried chicken and news
anchors -- whose combined talents have become household
words around the world.
Of course, actors George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and
actress/singer, Rosemary Clooney fit right into the
Hollywood show biz glitz; the "wireless telephone", invented
by Nathan B. Stubblefield, is now carried by people, in
their pockets, around the world. It is the face of Abraham
Lincoln found on every $5 dollar bill, and the news anchors
and journalists from Kentucky include: Nick Clooney, Diane
Sawyer, and veteran journalist, Helen
Thomas.
In George Clooney's, "Good Night, and Good Luck," -- Clooney
not only co-wrote, produced, and directed the film, but he
plays the role of (Fred Friendly) -- the producer of
the top rated CBS news show of the 50s, "See It Now". The
film is about Edward R. Murrow's on-air confrontations with
Sen. Joseph McCarthy about his tactics in getting guilty
pleas.
Section 8, a company created by Steven Soderbergh and
Clooney, in 1999, was the primary producer and the Todd
Wagner and Mark Cuban's 2929 Entertainment organization, was
contracted to provide the cost for
production and
distribution.
"In regards to how Clooney's co-producers are to share
revenue," says Troy Cory of NBS100, at a recent film
development and pitch session in Munich, German, "I was
asked by the head of the highly respected FFF motion picture
financing group, if I knew anything about Clooney's
technique of parlaying movies - for dollars."
"When
I said yes, I held them with puzzled looks for a moment or
two before I allowed myself to discuss the financial success
Clooney was having in utilizing his own brand of parlaying
movies in Hollywood." Troy said he touched on the problems
of losing big bucks in movie making in Hollywood, and
said to this reporter, that he,
"actually used the Clooney quotes he had just read in the
LATimes, about
Clooney's
'annus horribilis',
and his statements, "in all things considered, it's been the
worst year of my life," and how
"McCarthy exploited communism as the external enemy" - for
profit."
It was just by
coincidence and good luck that the question was asked and
answered; "because at the time," says Troy, I was just ready
to present the Nathan B. Stubblefield movie screenplay
entitled, "Wireless and Watermelons." It is the true story
about the reversal of another Kentuckian's success, who used
his patents to parlay financing to market his 1908,
"wireless telephone" invention." By
the time he was 46, Nathan or "Nat" became an absolute
recluse, waiting for the release of his wirleless telephone
frequencies, exploited and seized by the government, in
1913."
In
"Good Night, and Good
Luck", the external enemy is
communism, exploited by U.S. Senator, Joseph McCarthy, who
is portrayed through archival film clips. In the 50s climate
of fear, it was not unusual for journalists, actors,
politicians, and producers to be caught into the stickey web
created by McCarthy sympathizers, working in government.
To keep a controversial spokesperson
quiet, "sympathizer" quite often, became a "secret keeper".
Those who were accused of being traitors to their nation,
also became suspects to their sponsors, and to the
higher-ups in their companies. Most often than not, judicial
activism prevailed and property rights were taken by
regulatory seizures. Of course. when the word "sympathizer"
was once pen on a person, it lasted a lifetime. "Murrow
talks about 'a built-in allergy to stories that offend us,'"
Clooney said. "The problem hasn't changed, really."
"Clooney's right" says Troy, "I can
relate to a built-in allergy to stories that offend us. Can
you imagine if the Edward Murrow television show was around
before the Civil War between the North and South, what would
have happened to the rebel rousers in Washington, D.C. in
the 1860s. The external enemy for the average citizens
living in the Southern States of the U.S., was the Union and
Abraham Lincoln."
Anything controversial said by a
once-upon-a time-friend of a former U.S. of America trade
partner, action was immediatley taken, and property rights
and assets belonging to the provocateur were taken by
regulatory seizures. "It was no longer fun singing to the
red, white and blue," relates Troy. Of course, when the word
"southerner" or "confederate sympathizer" -- was once penned
on a person in those days, "a built-in allergy to stories
that offend people, stuck like glue, and to some extent, --
still does."
In the 1900s, the external enemy in
the U.S. included: Spain, Western Union, Thomas Edison,
Nikola Tesla, and Graham Bell. Joe McCarthy and Murrow would
have had a hayday with this one. The exploiters of their
territories and inventions, were not only the U.S.
regulatory agencies, but
also the Kentucky "Big Six",
who discovered
from Stubblefield, there was an easier and cheaper way to to
communicate with each other, without the use of telephone
poles and land
lines.
The "Bix Six", were the prominent
Murray, Kentucky investors in the N.B. Stubblefield, 1907,
wireless telephone patent. The
patent drawing depicts the dynamics of today's Internet and
WiFi, system, that enables VOIP users to receive and send
voice through the atmosphere, and over the internet, without
wires. -
MORE.
Today, in Hollywood, the external
enemy of the film industry, are the trade unions and the
ability of outside digital technology to project images on
the big screen. The people taking advantage of this
fear-factor, are the Internet users, the DVD manufacturer,
banks and the FCC.
"For example," says Troy, "it was
just announced this 39th week, the last weeks of Michael
Eisner, heading Disney -- the the company created Kingdom
Films to entice Credit Suisse First Boston to raise the
financing for making films. The bank will provide 40% of
production and distribution costs for about 32 films over
the next four years, and will receive 40% of the film
profits, including from box-office and video sales."
"The cost of movies is so great that
sharing a little risk is not such a bad idea," said people
close to the deal. The parlaying of movies for $$$$,
guarantees Disney distribution fees and 60% of the profit.
Disney last week said its film unit would have a
fourth-quarter loss of as much as $300 million.
In today's climate of terror and fear
of stiff taxes, judicial activism, hurricanes and inflation;
-- Journalists and Celebrity actor/producers, like Clooney,
are caught between trade unions, studios, banks and
government regulators. Norman Lear, of the American way,
believes that the fear of being accused or accusing each
other of being traitors to their sponsors, and/or to the
higher-ups in their companies or political party, who demand
them to back off controversy can be stifling. "Murrow talks
about 'a built-in allergy to stories that offend us,' "
Clooney said. "The problem hasn't changed, really."
But it seems that after all is said
and done in making so many films at Warner Bros., George
plans to keep working with Soderbergh. "We're really good
friends. We just were afraid of becoming administrators. All
of a sudden we were businessmen. Not only are we not
tremendously good at it, we really don't enjoy it. It's not
fun."
"We feel like we're trying to pick
the right spot to pull the plug and walk
away."
And yet, the projects keep coming:
"The Good German," a film directed by Soderbergh, stars
Clooney as an American journalist who, while seeking his
mistress in postwar Berlin, becomes entangled in a murder
mystery; and "Michael Clayton," starring Clooney as a
high-profile New York attorney in the last and worst days of
his career. Both are scheduled for release next year.
Lessons
from home
"My father has lived 68 years in Kentucky and has
very little to do with Hollywood," Clooney said. "And
suddenly he's a Hollywood hippie."
When Clooney talks about his father, it's clear he
feels the long shadow of the ex-anchorman. His father's
ideals set the standard for his own. "There were plenty of
times he'd say, 'Don't come back and look me in the eye
unless you did this ...' " Clooney said. Even now, "He's the
dominant one in the room. He's funny and smart. If he were
here, he would be telling stories and we'd be sitting there
listening."
"Good Night, and Good Luck" is "ultimately a love
letter to my old man," Clooney said. "It's me saying,
'Thanks for setting the bar that high, for believing so
strongly in the responsibility of information,' and taking
it to the level where it cost him a lot of things over the
years. There were jobs he left because he wasn't willing to
compromise."-
More Lessons from home -- in the Life and Times of George
Clooney
Parlaying
Movies - for $$$$$
In a way, Clooney has been able to
carry on that independent spirit developed by those in the
film industry, that is creating updated ways to produce
socially and politically relevant films -- that have faded
since the '60s and '70s.
As the story goes, a tan,
talkative and friendly Clooney, while sitting inside his
dimly lighted cottage on the Warner Bros. studio lot in
Burbank, explained the parlaying movie process this way to
film and finance the 1954, Murrow vs McCarthy event.
"I'm in the enviable position of
being able to force studios to make films that they wouldn't
ordinarily make," he said. Besides citing "Good Night, and
Good Luck," he mentioned his movie production, "Syriana," a
political thriller set in the Persian Gulf, which he used to
help persuade Warner Bros. to co-produce, by agreeing to
take no upfront dollars as the principal actor in the movie.
Clooney plays a career CIA
operative, based on real-life agent Robert Baer, who
uncovers a disturbing truth about his life's work. The
Warner Bros. / Section 8 co-production, will have a Nov. 23
limited release. The general release date is set for Dec.
9.
The Luck of
Kentucky
But Clooney said he wants to leverage his fame and
power as a box office commodity while he still can. "I want
to say I did it when it wasn't very easy. If it costs you a
career, credibility and all those things, that means you did
it on your own volition and you have to live with that. I'm
okay with that. I'd rather be able to point back and say,
'At this exact moment in history when it was kind of tricky
to do this, these are the stories I told.'
"
"No one else could have gotten this film made," said
Andy Friendly, Fred Friendly's son and a longtime television
producer, executive and consultant. "He could easily sit at
home and collect his $25-million paychecks for making big
commercial movies, enjoy his home in Italy and hang
out."
Anyway - if Joseph
McCarthy was still around to comment on the replay of
his appearance on Murrow's, "See It
Now"" in the Cloony movie, -- it would be more likely than
not, that McCarhy would express the feeling that maybe
somewhere along the line his good luck ran a little too far
to the right lane, and the
Venona
Cables, on which he relied
on, were hidden at the bottom of somebody's desk drawer.
"Good Night, and Good Luck" started shooting after
Clooney, who had gained 35 pounds for the role, was injured
during some fight scenes. Mysterious and excruciating
headaches turned out to have been the result of a spinal
leak, which requires in-hospital treatment every two
weeks.
"We'd already written the script, hired all the
people. I knew there was no way I could not do it. It's one
of those things that forces you to go," he said. "It's
actually good for you. People think you should stay in bed
and get well. Had I not had all this work to do, I would
have sat around and felt sorry for myself."
Unlike Glooney, McCarthy after being censured by the Senate
with no future in sight, returned to his old routine of
heavy drinking, that he readily admitted, was one of the
things that had helped him develop amicable relationships
with many members of the press. Some say, that alcohol mixed
with morphine -- did him in.
Just four years older than Clooney, McCarthy, born in a
small, close-knit Irish farming community in Grand Chute,
Wisconsin, on November 14, 1909, died of acute hepatitis in
Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. He
was given a state funeral attended by 70 senators, followed
by a mass held at St. Matthew's Cathedral. The Solemn
Pontifical Requiem was performed before over a hundred
priests and 2000 others. He was buried in St. Mary's
Cemetery, Appleton, Wisconsin. He was survived by his wife,
Jean and their adopted daughter, Tierney
McCarthy.
___________________
ByLines:
Tidbits
People in the media
industry,
During the intense anti-Communist movement that existed in
America from 1950, people who were suspected of varying
degrees of Communist links, became the subject of aggressive
inquiries, which became known as "witch hunts" to his
opponents. People in the motion picture industry,
government, and the military were accused by McCarthy of
being suspected Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers.
Venona Cables
Although McCarthy's activities did not directly result in
any convictions or criminal prosecutions for espionage, the
now declassified Venona Cables from the former Soviet Union
indicate that a number of the individuals he pursued were
actually guilty.
One of the most prominent attacks on McCarthy's methods came
in an episode of the TV documentary series "See It Now", by
respected journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast
on March 9, 1954. The show consisted mostly of clips of
McCarthy speaking, so any negative reaction would be mostly
from McCarthy hanging himself, as it were. In the clips
McCarthy does such things as accusing the Democratic party
of "twenty years of treason" (1933-1953, in his estimation),
and berating witnesses including an Army general.
The Murrow report sparked a nationwide popular opinion
backlash against McCarthy, which the Senator tried to
counter by appearing on the show himself. McCarthy appeared
on "See It Now", about three weeks after the original
episode, where he made a number of personal attacks and
charges against Murrow. However, his method of delivery had
been designed for a live audience, not a nationwide
broadcast one; the result of this appearance was a further
decline in his popularity. President Eisenhower, now free of
McCarthy's political intimdation and the always potential
threat of American Catholic electoral displeasure, referred
to "McCarthywasm" to a reporter.
The term "McCarthyism" has since become synonymous with any
government activity which seeks to suppress unfavorable
political or social views, often by limiting or suspending
civil rights under the pretext of maintaining national
security.
More
on GeorgeClooney Byline Story
Mike Clooney's personal views through
his
columns:
The environment: "All those conservationists
and environmentalists and tree huggers were right. The
regulations they have called for and nagged about for a
couple of generations are working. Our countryside is coming
back to life." -- Jan. 9, 1995.
Click
for More About Nick Clooney Runs For
Congress
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Photo665: George Clooney. TVInews
107 George Clooney Takes Lessons from his Dad, Nick
Clooney of Kentucky, in completing Edward R.
Murrow's, "Good Night, and Good Luck,"
-
by Parlaying Movies -
for Dollars
/ Television
International Magazine's Person Of The Week POW
392005 - /
NEWS Convergence -
39th Week of 2005 /
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