Film being made about allegedly fabricating journalist

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?d0786_BC_PA--ShatteredGlass&&news&newsflash-pennsylvania

By CATHERINE LUCEY
The Associated Press
8/19/02 12:03 AM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The career of journalism wunderkind Stephen Glass
imploded in 1998 amid allegations that his splashy stories in The New
Republic, Rolling Stone and George were filled with fabrications.

Since then the scorned writer has laid low. But Hollywood has decided
Glass has one story left.

His own.

Production is under way on a film called "Shattered Glass," based on a
1998 Vanity Fair article by former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Buzz
Bissinger. Hayden Christensen, recently seen on screen as the young
Darth Vader in "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," will
play Glass, a very different type of bad guy.

"It's just a really compelling character," said Hayden's brother Tove,
a producer on the film. "Especially for Hayden as an actor it must be
interesting for him to play someone who's a genius and also
pathological in his ability to lie."

Other actors include Hank Azaria, as one of Glass's editors at The New
Republic, and Steve Zahn as the Forbes writer who first detected the
fabrications. Chloe Sevigney is also in the cast.

The film, being shot in Montreal this month, is the directorial debut
of screenwriter Billy Ray.

Glass, then about 25, became national and international news after
reports surfaced that he had enhanced a story about computer hackers
for The New Republic.

Editors at the magazine then researched Glass's work and reported
finding fabrications in 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for the
publication over three years.

Although he has never spoken about his actions, numerous writers
analyzed him, including Bissinger, who described Glass's carefully
cooked stories.

"His reports described events which occurred at nebulous locations,
and included quotes from idiosyncratic characters (with no last names
included) whose language suggested the street poetry of Kerouac and
the psychological acuity of Freud," Bissinger wrote. "And nobody
called his bluff."

After serving as editor of the student newspaper at the University of
Pennsylvania, Glass's short tenure as a reporter began in Washington,
D.C., where the movie picks up.

He started at The New Republic, where he worked as an assistant to
Andrew Sullivan, the editor until 1996, and then as a fact checker.  
Known for being a scrappy reporter, rather than a polished writer, he
began writing vivid stories filled with over-the-top details and
too-good-to-be-true quotes. A notable one was about drinking, drugging
young Republicans at a conference.

"I did from time to time think the stories were inappropriate for The
New Republic," said Charles Lane, an editor at the magazine who later
fired Glass and will be played by Peter Sarsgaard. "I remember having
on some occasions a negative reaction to the stories, but I never
seriously believed they were fabricated."

Glass also was managing a prolific freelance career.

But editors later learned that many of the articles contained quotes
and color they couldn't confirm, people that couldn't be found. When a
Forbes reporter tried to follow up on the hackers story he couldn't
find a Web site for a software corporation Glass cited.

"When the guys from Forbes called, I do remember believing instantly:  
`Damn it, he might have made up the story,"' said Lane, now a reporter
for The Washington Post.

Glass tried to cover his tracks, quickly creating a fake Web site and
using his brother's cell phone as the company number, Lane said. But
it was too late -- he was fired.

Few could believe it. Colleagues described him as an ingratiating
personality, constantly looking for reassurance.

"The only way you could pull off this kind of thing is if you could
convince people you're the last person who would fabricate material
for a story," said Jonathan Chait, a senior editor at The New
Republic, who worked with Glass at the magazine. "He really was the
nicest person you ever met, in a comically over-the-top way."

Since then, Glass has graduated from Georgetown Law School and was
working as a law clerk in Washington about a year ago. There have been
reports that he is now living in New York City, but no contact
information for him could be found. Calls to a lawyer who represented
him around the time of his firing were not immediately returned.

Shortly after the story broke, HBO bought the rights to Bissinger's
article and asked Ray to write a screenplay. But the movie was never
made. Ray liked the story so much that he got the studio to release
the script so he could finish the project.

There are no plans yet for the film's release date.

And as for the real life story, many of Glass's former friends haven't
heard from him since the scandal.

"It was a very weird experience," Chait said. "It happened all at
once. All of a sudden he was an international notorious figure."


 
*==============================================================*
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without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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