Here's why I can no longer enjoy that movie (and why I probably just ruined it for the two of you).
Posted on 11/30/2005 9:52:22 AM PST by presidio9
Bob Woodward is getting it from all sides. You've heard the uproar over the famed Watergate sleuth's taking two years to reveal that he was leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Now the widow of John Belushi has recruited a gang of the late comic's friends to pay back Woodward for "Wired," his grim 1985 bio of her husband.
After the "SNL" player OD'd, Judy Belushi Pisano encouraged all of his pals to talk to Woodward, who, like John, had grown up in Wheaton, Ill.
She now tells us: "Woodward was the wrong guy [to write that book]. I was foolish."
So she and Tanner Colby have assembled "Belushi: A Biography," a just-published collection of affectionate memories of John — and unaffectionate ones of Woodward.
"It was my first experience of getting tricked by a journalist," says Belushi's "Continental Divide" co-star Blair Brown. "I really felt betrayed, and it made me question all of his other work."
Writer Mitch Glazer recalls that all Woodward wanted to hear about was Belushi's drug use. "Whenever I started telling him the good things about John, he would literally put down his pen and wait for me to finish," says Glazer.
"'Wired' has so many things wrong," says "Blues Brothers" director John Landis, who told Woodward how he and Belushi "sobbed and huggged" after he flushed a mound of Belushi's coke down the toilet. "That book has me giving John some big roundhouse, John Wayne punch in the face, and it's just not true."
Al Franken remembers seeing Woodward in the office of "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels. "I went over to [Woodward] and said, 'Well, you know, the only time I ever saw John snorting coke was with [Woodward's colleague] Carl Bernstein.' And that was the last I ever heard from him." (Franken assures us that he was just kidding.)
Writer Tony Hendra says Woodward "certainly gave the impression he didn't like Belushi very much. He wasn't interested in the guy's achievements in any way. He was out to prove that Belushi was symptomatic of some generational defect, which I felt was contemptible."
Woodward declined to comment on the charges. But Judy says, "I'm not angry anymore. I just felt it was something that needed to be put straight."
So Woodward writes agenda-driven articles.
Surprise, surprise!
"Continental Divide"
I love that movie.
"I've never seen such big b*lls. And I'm from Chicago."
Oh dear. Bob didn't follow orders on the Plame story and now he's going to be hung out to dry by the Left.
I love the part where Belushi is being mugged, the police show up and things get worse for him.
Here's why I can no longer enjoy that movie (and why I probably just ruined it for the two of you).
Who is that?
Gee, what a suprise! The left gets mad at Woodward for messing up their Rove-hunt, and suddenly we have a backlash about a 20 year old book that nobody read in the first place, and Belushi's family claims to be all upset that Woodward called him a drug user. Say, how did Belushi die, anyway?
Yes he is. So he should probably consult with Chris Hitchens about what else he'll face from the left in the future.
RE: Al Franken remembers seeing Woodward in the office of "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels. "I went over to [Woodward] and said, 'Well, you know, the only time I ever saw John snorting coke was with [Woodward's colleague] Carl Bernstein.' And that was the last I ever heard from him."
Everyone make a note of this rare moment, perhaps a rare moment in eternity - with regards to the above statement, I must say, way to go Al! LOL!
Interesting. No one can doubt that John Belushi had a serious drug problem. I'd like to hear about the good things about him. His wife should have wrote the book herself, in the first place. Woodward gets around, doesn't he...
Brown & Dowd (oh no...don't tell me....)
Yes. No real investigative journalism anymore because people like Woodward want to be in with the in crowd.
>>>Brown & Dowd (oh no...don't tell me....)
I know the names, just didn't know the faces. What movie are they in?
How quickly things change - why it seems like it twas only yesterday when we were having a Watergate-Woodward love-in when that loveable old rascal Mark Felt was revealed for all the world to see as Deep Throat. My what a fun trip down memory lane *that* was. Now Woodward screws everything up for him and for us by - well for protecting a source (remember Deep Throat?). Well that was then and this was now. Now that's a No-no. Poor Bob. Poor us.
I doubt it.
Woodward is one of those guys who has to write the "Big picture" book.
Its got to be larger then life and have complexities and everything else.
Its part of the reason his ego is so massive.
He wanted an epic, when he couldn't get one, he simply made Belushi a "definition of a generation" piece of drug use i.e. a funny version of the Hunter Thompson mold.
Alot of these big head massive ego driven so called journalists can't write about someone as is or as they are, if they have to, they'll dump the project, if they don't dump it (and woodward should have dumped this) they "transform" it.
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