Posted on 06/18/2010 8:06:03 PM PDT by Artemis Webb
A while back, we heard that Leonardo DiCaprio might play controversial FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover in a Clint Eastwood directed biothingie.
Now it looks like that’s actually gonna happen.
One of my studio sources tells me now that Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play J Edgar Hoover in the still untitled biopic.
Will DiCaprio Wear A Black, Fluffy Dress For Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar Hoover Movie!?!?
...The piece goes on to discuss Universal's initial reticence towards the film - and their subsequent conflict about it now that Eastwood and DiCaprio are orbiting the project. Interesting stuff...be sure to take a look.
Late in life, and after his death, Hoover became an increasingly controversial figure. His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI. He used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to amass secret files on political leaders, and to collect evidence using illegal methods. It is because of Hoover's long and controversial reign that FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.
Since the 1940s, unsubstantiated rumors have circulated that Hoover was a homosexual. It has been suggested that Clyde Tolson, an associate director of the FBI who was Hoover's heir, may also have been his lover.
Some authors have dismissed the rumors about Hoover's sexuality and his relationship with Tolson in particular as unlikely, while others have described them as probable or even "confirmed", and still others have reported the rumors without stating an opinion. Hoover described Tolson as his alter ego: the men not only worked closely together during the day, but also took meals, went to night clubs and vacationed together.
This closeness between the two men is often cited as evidence that they were lovers, though some FBI employees who knew them, such as Mark Felt, say that the relationship was merely "brotherly".
Tolson inherited Hoover's estate and moved into his home, having accepted the American flag that draped Hoover's casket. Tolson is buried a few yards away from Hoover in the Congressional Cemetery. Attorney Roy Cohn, an associate of Hoover during the 1950s investigations of Communists and himself a closeted homosexual, opined that Hoover was too frightened of his own sexuality to have anything approaching a normal sexual or romantic relationship.
In his 1993 biography Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover, journalist Anthony Summers quoted a witness, "society divorcee" Susan Rosenstiel, (who later served time at Rikers Island for perjuring herself in a 1971 case) who claimed to have seen Hoover engaging in cross-dressing in the 1950s; she claimed that on two occasions she witnessed Hoover wearing a fluffy black dress with flounces and lace, stockings, high heels and a black curly wig, at homosexual orgies.
Not a good idea. Gorebull warming is likely to eliminate poor Leo before the film starts...
Over the past decade, I have reluctantly conceded Leo DiCaprio’s acting chops are genuine.
However, He didn’t remotely resemble Howard Hughes in that biopic and I don’t know how they’ll make him resemble J. Edgar Hoover no matter if he gains fifty pounds and the makeup department goes all out.
Doesn’t Hollywood have some genuinely good AND ugly actors? A younger Maury Chaikin or Danny Aiello or Charles Durning waiting in the wings?
Yeah...Leo is a damn good actor and apparently a nice guy but his politics scream “Liberal Sucker” 24/7. Then again Eastwood directed Sean Penn to an Oscar so what do I know.
After the grizzled retired Detroit AUW flick, now he’s going to kiss some liberal booty.
I really enjoyed Sean Penn’s character in The Thin Red Line. Spicolli’s political personality be damned, but some actors can act.
Who is who? I, for the life of me, CAN NOT tell!
Sean Penn is a great actor. There’s no question of that. Having said that I wouldn’t cross the street to piss on him if he was on fire.
DiCaprio on the left. Hoover on the right.
hear that! he’s a grade-A schmuck in real life.
Every time the Hoover character was on screen the lighting was such that he looked just so very evil and he spoke in funereal, angry tones. The only thing the film makers didn't have him doing was tossing poor widows out into the snow for not paying their rent.
Thanks ;>)
I’ve read were the “J. Edgar Hoover is gay” rumor was started by the KGB to discredit Hoover.
I’ve read that also. The cross-dressing stories aside, the fact that he was never married and had a male life friend from whom he was nearly inseparable, who inherited his house, and was buried a few feet from him seems to indicate that at the least he was asexual and at the most a closeted homosexual.
Regardless a movie about him could be fascinating. Granted also that many would claim it either whitewashes him or demonizes him. It would literally be impossible to make a movie about him that everyone agrees is an accurate portrayal.
When Hoover died, Nixon was determined that the FBI would never have another J. Edgar. Nixon was disturbed by the FBI's tactics and their collection of information, which Hoover used to his advantage. Mark Felt, who was later identified as "Deep Throat" in the Watergate saga, expected to move up to the director's spot when Hoover died. Nixon did not appoint him, specifically because he knew Felt intended to become the new J. Edgar, and continue the current FBI policies. It was this anger towards Nixon that motivated him to feed the story to Woodward and Bernstein.
Woodward and Bernstein, who painted themselves as fearless investigative reporters, were spoon fed the information by Felt, because he was determined to nail Nixon. When Felt came out as Deep Throat, he thought he would be a media star. The country was tired of Watergate, though, and Felt's cheap motivation of exacting revenge on Nixon for being passed over for a promotion made the press want to bury the story. Felt died in 2008, completely ignored. Good enough for him.
Not true at all. My uncle worked in the FBI and for Hoover during those years and said none of that was true.
I believed him (he’s dead now)
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