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CBS Lawyers Worried Over "Reagan" Miniseries
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FRI OCT 24, 2003 09:42:38 ET XXXXX
CBS 'REAGAN' REVEALED: WATCH NANCY HIT DAUGHTER, SEE RONNIE CURSE
**Exclusive Details**
Former first lady Nancy Reagan has reached out to Hollywood heavyweights, including Merv Griffin, to somehow stop an upcoming CBS-TV movie about her life and times with Ronald Reagan.
A concerned legal department at CBS repeatedly called producers of the upcoming miniseries THE REAGANS, during filming, looking for assurances that shocking claims made in the telefilm could be backed up, productions sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. Irritated producers reminded the network they had already cleared the script, with few notes!
THE REAGANS is now at the center of a media and political firestorm.
Insinuations that Nancy pill-popped are scattered throughout the story, as are repeated allegations that Ronald Reagan was homophobic, and was suffering from Alzheimer's disease as early as 1984. [Nancy rushes to a doctor to warn that her husband is forgetting things.]
Actress Judy Davis's portrayal of Nancy Reagan appears to be inspired by the Joan Crawford camp biopic MOMMIE DEAREST; wild mood swings, dramatic lighting, and tart-mouth insults are hysterically delivered by Davis.
[The showcase line "Ketchup is a vegetable! It is not a meat, right? So IT IS a vegetable" is likely to become the "No wire hangers ever!" camp highlight of the season.]
One camp scene shows Nancy and Ron both standing nude [wrapped in towels] when they first learn from NBC's John Chancellor they have won the election.
Pages 32, 33 of script:
INT. REAGANS' HOUSE -- PACIFIC PALISADES -- DAY
A FILM CREW is swarming all over the living room, setting up lights, cameras, etc. Reagan sits in the middle, putting on his own make-up.
INT. UPSTAIRS -- PATTI'S BEDROOM
Nancy arguing with Patti, (age 5), who won't come down.
NANCY: Come on, Patti. They're all set to go.
PATTI: No. I won't. I want to stay up here and play.
Nancy grits her teeth, and takes Patti by the wrist.
NANCY: No arguing. We're going down, right now.
PATTI: No! No! No! No! NO! NO!
Nancy reaches out, and slaps Patti. Patti reels, holding her cheek. Nancy
freezes.
*** Nancy is shown talking with her own mother in one flashback.
Page 16 of script:
NANCY'S STEP-FATHER: Nancy, I don't know what you see in Hollywood. As far as I can tell, it's nothing but Communists and drug addicts.
NANCY: It didn't used to be this bad -- did it, Mother?
NANCY'S MOTHER, EDITH: Hell, no. When I was here, it was just wall-to-wall Jews and queers.
****
President Reagan, played by James Brolin, is shown cursing his staff during one Oval Office meeting.
Pages. 152 of script:
REAGAN: "Rank amateur"! Who does that sonofa***** think he is? I'm the goddam President of the United States, I'm his boss!
****
Lawyers for CBS have growing concern that few of the most-intimate scenes created for THE REAGANS have much historical documentation or on-the-record witness corroboration.
Complicating matters is the film's charge that Reagan believed AIDS was biblical revenge -- as actor James Brolin finds his family in a real-life fight with the disease!
An immediate member of the Brolin/Streisand family is currently suffering from HIV, according to press reports.
During a scene in the film which his wife pleads with him to help people battling AIDS, Reagan says resolutely, "They that live in sin shall die in sin" and refuses to discuss the issue further.
Actor Brolin delivers the uncorroborated words with extra confidence.
In 1992, Streisand wrote an essay condemning Reagan over AIDS:
"I will never forgive my fellow actor Ronald Reagan for his refusal to even utter the word AIDS for seven years, and for blocking adequate funding for research and education, which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Then came George Bush, once the moderate, who, in a Faustian bargain, allied himself with the same primitive, gay-bashing, immoral minority."
Streisand, who spent weeks on the set of THE REAGANS, did not return calls seeking comment.
Developing...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2003
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
CBS 'REAGAN' REVEALED: WATCH NANCY HIT DAUGHTER, SEE RONNIE CURSE
**Exclusive Details**
Former first lady Nancy Reagan has reached out to Hollywood heavyweights, including Merv Griffin, to somehow stop an upcoming CBS-TV movie about her life and times with Ronald Reagan.
A concerned legal department at CBS repeatedly called producers of the upcoming miniseries THE REAGANS, during filming, looking for assurances that shocking claims made in the telefilm could be backed up, productions sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. Irritated producers reminded the network they had already cleared the script, with few notes!
THE REAGANS is now at the center of a media and political firestorm.
Insinuations that Nancy pill-popped are scattered throughout the story, as are repeated allegations that Ronald Reagan was homophobic, and was suffering from Alzheimer's disease as early as 1984. [Nancy rushes to a doctor to warn that her husband is forgetting things.]
Actress Judy Davis's portrayal of Nancy Reagan appears to be inspired by the Joan Crawford camp biopic MOMMIE DEAREST; wild mood swings, dramatic lighting, and tart-mouth insults are hysterically delivered by Davis.
[The showcase line "Ketchup is a vegetable! It is not a meat, right? So IT IS a vegetable" is likely to become the "No wire hangers ever!" camp highlight of the season.]
One camp scene shows Nancy and Ron both standing nude [wrapped in towels] when they first learn from NBC's John Chancellor they have won the election.
Pages 32, 33 of script:
INT. REAGANS' HOUSE -- PACIFIC PALISADES -- DAY
A FILM CREW is swarming all over the living room, setting up lights, cameras, etc. Reagan sits in the middle, putting on his own make-up.
INT. UPSTAIRS -- PATTI'S BEDROOM
Nancy arguing with Patti, (age 5), who won't come down.
NANCY: Come on, Patti. They're all set to go.
PATTI: No. I won't. I want to stay up here and play.
Nancy grits her teeth, and takes Patti by the wrist.
NANCY: No arguing. We're going down, right now.
PATTI: No! No! No! No! NO! NO!
Nancy reaches out, and slaps Patti. Patti reels, holding her cheek. Nancy
freezes.
*** Nancy is shown talking with her own mother in one flashback.
Page 16 of script:
NANCY'S STEP-FATHER: Nancy, I don't know what you see in Hollywood. As far as I can tell, it's nothing but Communists and drug addicts.
NANCY: It didn't used to be this bad -- did it, Mother?
NANCY'S MOTHER, EDITH: Hell, no. When I was here, it was just wall-to-wall Jews and queers.
****
President Reagan, played by James Brolin, is shown cursing his staff during one Oval Office meeting.
Pages. 152 of script:
REAGAN: "Rank amateur"! Who does that sonofa***** think he is? I'm the goddam President of the United States, I'm his boss!
****
Lawyers for CBS have growing concern that few of the most-intimate scenes created for THE REAGANS have much historical documentation or on-the-record witness corroboration.
Complicating matters is the film's charge that Reagan believed AIDS was biblical revenge -- as actor James Brolin finds his family in a real-life fight with the disease!
An immediate member of the Brolin/Streisand family is currently suffering from HIV, according to press reports.
During a scene in the film which his wife pleads with him to help people battling AIDS, Reagan says resolutely, "They that live in sin shall die in sin" and refuses to discuss the issue further.
Actor Brolin delivers the uncorroborated words with extra confidence.
In 1992, Streisand wrote an essay condemning Reagan over AIDS:
"I will never forgive my fellow actor Ronald Reagan for his refusal to even utter the word AIDS for seven years, and for blocking adequate funding for research and education, which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Then came George Bush, once the moderate, who, in a Faustian bargain, allied himself with the same primitive, gay-bashing, immoral minority."
Streisand, who spent weeks on the set of THE REAGANS, did not return calls seeking comment.
Developing...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2003
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
.
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