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Some Claim Smear Campaign Against John Nash, Subject of 'A Beautiful Mind'

Aired March 18, 2002 - 11:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Whisper campaigns, rumors, downright mud slinging, and some of the spin doctors, if you believe the "New York Times" article, the word is they are hired by some studios to sabotage competing films. Well such as the reported smear campaign against John Nash, subject of best picture front runner, "A Beautiful Mind." It says in real life that Nash is an anti-Semite, and not at all like the man portrayed in the movie.

Nash's wife and director Ron Howard had this reaction to that allegation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICIA NASH, JOHN NASH'S WIFE: I have known him since I was 20, and that's just not true. So, I mean, I should know, what do you want me to do?

JOHN NASH, NOBEL LAUREATE: You can't well argue about these things. I have learned that it is better that I don't talk about it.

RON HOWARD, DIRECTOR: For anyone to try take -- to distort behaviors reported to have occurred, you know, at the absolute height of his delusions, in the midst of a hellish 35-year period of schizophrenia, is, I think, not doing the world, or John Nash or themselves any kind of service.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, joining us now talk some more about the awards dirt slinging now is Tom O'Neil. He's author of "Movie Awards, the Emmys and the Grammys," and he's host of the awards watch Web site goldderby.com. You see Tom there in our New York bureau.

Good morning. Glad to have you with us today.

TOM O'NEIL, HOST, GOLDDERBY.COM: Good morning, Leon.

HARRIS: Daryn Kagan, moments ago, was saying this kind of thing has been going on for a long time, but has it always gotten this nasty?

O'NEIL: I don't think there is a conspiracy at all. I think this is a great fraud, and what's fascinating about it is that we are all buying into it. "The New York Times" referred on Saturday to the smear campaign. "The Washington Post" did last week. But nobody one can find anybody doing the smearing.

This began recently when the anti-Semitic charges came up. This movie has been under scrutiny for a long time. Ron Howard admits that he took many, many liberties, and huge ones, by the way, with the life of John Nash, and I think he's undergoing the same kind of scrutiny that "The Insider," "JFK" and "The Hurricane" went through recently at the Oscars.

But Howard is claiming there are dirty tricks perpetrated against him, that he likens to the Dukakis campaign a few years ago.

Last night on "60 Minutes," John Nash's wife said that there was absolutely, positively a campaign against the film, and the chairman of Universal Studios has said the campaign is so nasty that it's shameful and should stop.

HARRIS: Well, Tom, the thing about this one that really strikes us is the fact they brought in the religious angle. So much has been said in certain areas of the press about the fact that a lot of Hollywood is Jewish, and to bring up the idea that is he anti-Semite, talk about low blows, you can't get much lower than that.

O'NEIL: I agree with you. On the other hand, he did say some really nasty things about Jews. He said at one point, that all of the problems of his life are traceable of Jews. And he refers to the crypto-Zionist (ph) conspiracy and all these kinds of things. So the charges are serious, but understandable, and he has answered them properly, I think.

What comes -- this comes down to is, is this man a hero or not, despite the facts that have been doctored in his story. This movie portrays him in a heroic way.

HARRIS: Let me ask you about this, because you hit the key word. This is a movie. This is not an documentary. Why is it then that it matters? If the idea is the movie should be standing on the merits of the story that it's telling, why does it matter if any of this stuff is actually true or not.

O'NEIL: Because I think 99 percent of the people who see this movie actually believe it's true. And if we believed the mother of John Nash's first child, she says this was not a heroic man, and that he is really very mean, and these are questions journalists are bringing up, whether or not it is true or not.

The problem is, as Daryn said earlier, millions of dollars are at stake here, Academy Awards, something we hold very sacred, and the problem is, is the journalists are jumping on this, asking these questions, in some cases unfairly, in some cases fairly, but if there is a smear campaign going on, where is it? These journalists who participate in my Web site by the way are reporters for Associated Press, "USA Today," "Us Weekly." None of us ever received a single phone call from a studio rep smearing somebody else's movie. If they are running a smear campaign, they are doing a pretty lousy job. HARRIS: Then what does it say about the journalists who are actually writing about the movies if this sort of mysterious and nefarious and rumor mill is actually having any kind of effect whatsoever. Does it say more about the writers or about the studios?

O'NEIL: I think it says a lot about us writers quite frankly, and how we behave like wolf packs, and we jump on these things. My belief is that if Universal Studios had not so vehemently denied the Matt Drudge charge of anti-Semitism, which, by the way, is in the book. Matt has been reading this book for months, and bringing up little items along the way. This is just his latest, and the chairman of Universal really spun out at Showest (ph) last week in Las Vegas, and told "The Hollywood" reporter how shameful this was, et cetera, and started calling this a conspiracy. That's where this took off recently in the last week.

I think the question is, will it impact the Oscars now? And I don't believe it will. Most ballots were probably returned a week ago today. Ballots actually close tomorrow, the final ones have to be in. So on one hand, this campaign, if this campaign is true, has been going on for some time? Will it affect the outcome? Probably not.

HARRIS: All right, we have to go. But I have to get a yes or no answer from you. Does that mean that "A Beautiful Mind" wins or not?

O'NEIL: I'm actually predicting "Moulin Rouge." I think "Moulin" will either pop up as best actress or best picture, but most people would say I'm crazy, and that "A Beautiful Mind" is out front.

HARRIS: OK, good deal. We appreciate joining us and sharing that with us.

Tom O'Neil, thanks a lot. We appreciate it. Take care.

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