- Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company
of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political
censorship, the rabble-rousing film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he
knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it.
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- The admission, during an interview with CNN, undermined
Moore's claim that Disney was trying to sabotage the US release of Fahrenheit
911 just days before its world premiere at the Cannes film festival.
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- Instead, it lent credence to a growing suspicion that
Moore was manufacturing a controversy to help publicise the film, a full-bore
attack on the Bush administration and its handling of national security
since the attacks of 11 September 2001.
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- In an indignant letter to his supporters, Moore said
he had learnt only on Monday that Disney had put the kibosh on distributing
the film, which has been financed by the semi-independent Disney subsidiary
Miramax.
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- But in the CNN interview he said: "Almost a year
ago, after we'd started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael
Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will
not distribute it."
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- Nobody in Hollywood doubts Fahrenheit 911 will find a
US distributor. His last documentary, Bowling for Columbine , made for
$3m (£1.7m), pulled in $22m at the US box office.
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- But Moore's publicity stunt, if that is what is, appears
to be working. A front-page news piece in The New York Times was followed
yesterday by an editorial denouncing Disney for censorship and denial of
Moore's right to free expression.
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- Moore told CNN that Disney had "signed a contract
to distribute this [film]" but got cold feet. But Disney executives
insists there was never any contract. And a source close to Miramax said
that the only deal there was for financing, not for distribution.
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