Re: Rights in real characters

On Thu, 7 Aug 1997, Joseph Riolo <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
>
> I am wondering... Is there any fine print at the end of the movie
> that disclaims anything regarding the use of Clinton's "voice" or
> does the list of credits (again at the end of the movie) mention
> anything about having the permission from President Clinton or
> whatever there is at the end of the movie?
>
> I am not a moviegoer but I have noticed that 99.9% of the moviegoers
> left right after the last scene and before the start of the scrolling
> credits and other fine prints. So, I am curious if anyone who
> watched "Contact" stayed to the end of the movie and if the
> scrolling credits and fine prints say anything about Clinton.

I've seen the movie twice, and stayed for the credits once. I did not see anything in the credits that specifically named Clinton by name. I can't swear that it wasn't there, but I really doubt it.

Last month there was a mid-size article on this in the Washington Post shortly after the movie premiered. It seems that the producers and Warner Brothers were a little surprised by the Clinton reaction. As I recall, either Zemeckis or a spokesperson for him was quoted as saying something to the affect, "We're a little surprised that the White House was upset over this, after all it is the same technique which was used in Forrest Gump and nobody in the Kennedy family made a federal case out of it." (paraphrasing)

(Mind you, I'm not defending Zemeckis or the movie.) As anyone who has seen both can tell you, the treatment of the historical footage in each movie was quite different. For one thing, Forrest Gump didn't contain thirty some reporters from CNN making paid cameo appearances in the movie. If I hadn't already seen the main footage of Clinton on C-SPAN (it was taken from his press announcement regarding the bacteria found on the Mars rock), I would have been hard pressed to tell whether it was clever editing by Zemeckis or a cameo appearance by Mr. President.

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