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"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
Leonardo DiCaprio, cub reporter | page 1, 2 It got worse for Westin. White House spokesman Jake Siewert told a very different version of events: "In February, some time ago [ABC News asked] the president to answer some questions for an ABC News special. And ABC News indicated that it would be Leonardo DiCaprio that would ask the questions." In a formal interview request submitted by ABC on March 29, the duration of the event is listed at 30 minutes: 10 minutes for a short walk around the White House and 20 minutes for a sit-down interview with the president. The next day, the White House informed ABC that there wasn't time for the full 30 minutes. The producers, says Siewert, agreed to eliminate the walking tour and spend their 15 minutes on a sit-down interview. On March 31, the ABC News crew arrived at 9 a.m. to set up for the 12:30 interview. The ABC contingent eventually numbered 20. According to Siewert, DiCaprio was prepared with questions and note cards. Asked about the discrepancy between the stories from Westin and the White House, Murphy demurs, "We'll have to agree to disagree."
Was Westin lying? Incompetent? Both? There is one other possibility. In October 1999, Miramax agreed to give $35 million toward the financing of DiCaprio's next movie, "The Gangs of New York." Two weeks later, DiCaprio agreed to be the subject of a cover package for Talk magazine. A week or two after that (no one seems to know exactly when) he and ABC came together for the Clinton interview. All three entities -- Miramax, Talk and ABC -- are owned by Walt Disney Co. Westin has had his problems here before, a dubious "Good Morning America" "interview" with the Pets.com mascot (Pets.com is partially owned by Disney) and allegations that he spiked an investigative story on Disney theme parks in 1998. Occam's razor aside, there is present the distinct smell of synergy. Murphy insists: "None, zero, absolutely not. This has nothing to do with corporate synergy." In any case, it doesn't look good for Westin. Either he's the victim of imposed corporate synergy, he's out of the loop in his own division or he is pimping ABC News out to the celebrity-entertainment world. At least this much is clear: Beware of movie stars with ideas.
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