By M&C News Dec 17, 2006, 7:20 GMT
On the conservative side we have bad boy Mel Gibson. Now seems his liberal counterpart Oliver Stone is in trouble.
US film maker Oliver Stone adjusts a fireman helmet borrowed from a local fire brigade crew as he poses for press during the presentation of his latest movie "World Trade Center" at the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Thursday 28 September 2006 in San Sebastian, Basque Country, northern Spain. EPA/JUAN HERRERO
It was sparsely reported that Stone and Paramount optioned rights to the book “Jawbraker” about the Afghanistan conflict and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The book by CIA operative Gary Bernstein is critical of efforts by the Clinton administration to end Taliban rule in Afghanistan and hunt down bin Laden.
FoxNews reporter Roger Friedman is now reporting (in an item headlined “Oliver Stone Still Looking for Conspiracies) that the deal was kept quiet in order to prevent the director’s latest movie ‘World Trade Center’ from being drawn into controversy.
Additionally insiders are scratching their heads trying to figure out why Stone has tapped political conservative Cyrus Nowresteh, who wrote the controversial ABC miniseries ‘The Path to 911,’ to write screenplay for ‘Jawbreaker.’
Nowresteh has participated on a panel "Rebels With a Cause: How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood's Next Paradigm Shift."
And to make things worse, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has disclosed that Oliver Stone's Santa Monica, CA based Ixtlan Productions agreed to pay $6, 322 to settle allegations of violations of the Cuban embargo that occurred while Stone was filming a documentary about Fidel Castro between Feb. 2002 and May 2003.
A tersely worded statement said the production dealt “in services in which the government of Cuba or a Cuban National has an interest.”
The statement, reported by indieWIRE, also mentioned fines against individuals close to Stone who recently traveled to Cuba – one of which to purchase cigars.
Stone’s Cuban flick ‘Looking for Fidel’ never reached movie theaters screening on HBO instead.
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