Oscar Producer Calls Moore "Paranoid" (Speaks out for the first time)

Hollywood.com ^ | March 31, 2003 | Guylaine Cadorette

[TLBSHOW]

Oscar Producer Calls Moore "Paranoid"

HOLLYWOOD, March 31, 2003 -- In his first print interview since Oscar night, filmmaker Michael Moore told the San Jose Mercury News that despite his controversial speech that elicited both cheers and jeers, he hasn't sensed any hostility from the Hollywood community.

"As uncomfortable as it might have been for some people to hear, I said things that needed to be said," the filmmaker told the paper.

Moore, whose documentary Bowling for Columbine won the best documentary award, added that the Oscar night boos came from Kodak Theater stagehands and were oddly "amplified."

"I heard someone yelling and someone shouting 'No! No!' as I started my speech," he said, adding that there is proof on tape. "Those boos were amplified through the house. And yet, as I looked out at the audience, no one was booing."

Moore also charged reactions shots were cut to make it seem the crowd was more anti-Moore than it actually was. "Martin Scorsese was going to applaud and they cut away from him. You could see the camera desperately trying to find people who were disagreeing with me and they couldn't."

But Gil Cates, producer of the Oscar telecast, strongly disagreed with Moore's comments.

"That's bull! He's totally incorrect," Cates said. "I take personal umbrage at his accusations that we manipulated the sound for political purposes. The sound in the audience was consistent for everybody's applause and boos, which seemed about equal to me.

"The man is paranoid," he continued. "It's a live event. We shot a lot of people responding to him. What you saw at home was absolutely representative of what took place in the theater." Cates added that he cued the music when Moore got to the "Shame on you, Mr. Bush" part of his speech because he felt it was enough.

But Moore feels his comments were neither ill timed nor unpatriotic. "I was being honored for a film that deals with the American culture of violence, both at home and abroad, and it felt like the perfect thing to say ... the appropriate thing to say."

Moore said he has not felt any hostility from the Hollywood community and is more in demand now than before, pointing to new production deals.

According to Variety, Moore's next project will be a documentary about the "the murky relationship" between former President George Bush and the family of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The pic, Fahrenheit 911, will suggest that the bin Laden family profited greatly from the association.

The filmmaker is also planning Sicko, a documentary about health maintenance organizations and the health care crisis. Both projects, according to the Mercury News, have been financed in Canada and Britain.

[riri]

The bio-pic should be called Dicko

Actually, I think it should be called Thicko.

[pepsi_junkie]

Relax everyone. This guy has floated under the radar screen for a long time, appearing occasionally on sympathetic TV outlets claiming to be an underdog who cant catch a break who was succeeding only because of this great underground movement. The reality is that he is a disgusting poser, a troll of a gasbag who espouses flat out marxist dogma and who completely fabricates his entire opus of work. But as a sort of fringe character in American culture, all most people knew of this clown was his appearances on TV shows like "Today" and that ancient "Roger and Me". Now he gets the big spotlight on him, I guarantee it will wither him. People who had taken his "I'm just a fighter for the little guy against big business" persona on faith will soon see him as a left wing kook of the first magnitude and he will be marginalized more than he can imagine. Sadly, this will actually please him in a perverse way, as he'll see it as proof that "they" are trying to silence him. Nutcase. Oh well, he'll always be able to count on standing ovations at Cannes.

[amused]

I was in the studio audience for Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday 3/28/03. Even though we were told explicitly not to boo and only to cheer, I was heartened that a few in the audience joined myself and my friend in booing when his name was announced for the first interview. Even Bill took Moore to task for his rant saying it basicvally made the anti-war people look silly and probably pushed fence sitters to other side. Jeanenne Garafolo was her usual hypocritical, dupliciitous self.

[usastandsunited]

Moore, whose documentary Bowling for Columbine won the best documentary award, added that the Oscar night boos came from Kodak Theater stagehands and were oddly "amplified."

Imagine that. Hollywood distorting something.

[RedWhiteBlue]

I watched Real Time. If I recall correctly, this is where I heard him use a completely different excuse as to where all of the "boos" came from.

He claimed that there were only a few people booing at him. But when that happened, lots of other people started booing the original few booers. So the great majority of the booing we heard was not actually directed at him.

Yeah, right! The guy is really must think that we are idiots if he thinks we're going to buy that explanation. He's the idiot.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Roger Ebert was on Leno last week, and called Moore a liar in regards to the number of people booing.

[amused]

Even better was his explanation that people overthrow their governments peacefully all the time. When he stated Serbia and the removal of Milosevic was the "people's" decision, I almost yelled out loud that he was a liar. The yippies sitting in front of use ate it up with a spoon, oblivious to the lies they were swallowing.

On the good news front, Larry Miller was hilarious and actual came off as the best panelist.

[arly]

you were in the same room with Moore?.. could you smell him sitting up in the audience?... just wondered.

[amused]

you were in the same room with Moore?.. could you smell him sitting up in the audience?... just wondered.

No.....the first bit on Maher's show is done via sat. phone. He was on screen "larger than life".

Maher really grilled him. He even told him to get over the 2000 election. I was stunned.

[lonestar]

Is Molly Ivins Moores mother?