Haim Saban to CBS: Cancel Oliver Stone's Showtime Series

[Bernice Moore]

Haim Saban to CBS: Cancel Oliver Stone's Showtime Series

http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post...ment-19614


Published: July 27, 2010 @ 3:54 pm



By Sharon Waxman & Brent Lang

(Also read our update: "Oliver Stone Apologizes Again; This Time, the ADL Accepts")
EXCLUSIVE
Update at 10:30 p.m.:
A furious Haim Saban has mounted a campaign to get Showtime to cancel its planned airing of Oliver Stone's 10-part series, "A Secret History of America," in the wake of anti-Jewish remarks by the outspoken director.
Stone's apology "is transparently fake," Saban said in an interview with TheWrap. "He has been consistent in his anti-American and anti-Semitic remarks. I respect his First Amendment rights. I hope he respects mine."
The billionaire and outspoken media mogul told TheWrap he had contacted CBS chief Leslie Moonves to urge him to pull the series.
He said that WME chairman Ari Emanuel had also called CBS privately to urge the series be pulled. (Update: WME had no comment.)
Stone has previously said the 10-part "Secret History" series would put Hitler and Stalin "in context," and offer an alternative crash course to the "grossly inadequate history" taught by American schools and proffered by mass media.
CBS, Moonves and Emanuel did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Saban also said he had called CAA partner Bryan Lourd, Stone's agent, to follow the example of Emanuel, who recently dropped Mel Gibson in the wake of the actor's latest racist tirade.
Saban said he considers Stone to be "clearly an anti-Semite and an anti-American."
(Also read our update: "Oliver Stone Apologizes Again; This Time, the ADL Accepts")
EARLIER:
Israeli-American billionaire and media mogul Haim Saban isn't buying Oliver Stone's apology.
In venting his outrage, Saban has become the first big Hollywood name to publicly criticize Stone for his controversial remarks about the Holocaust.
"This guy should be helped in joining Mel Gibson into the land of retirement, where he can preach his anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in the wilderness where he belongs," Saban told TheWrap in an email.
Stone kicked off a media firestorm over the weekend for telling a reporter from London's Sunday Times that Adolf Hitler, the subject of his upcoming documentary, did more damage to Russia than he did to the Jews. He also stated that the U.S.'s support for Israel is the result of Jewish domination of the media.
Stone apologized Monday afternoon saying his comments were "clumsy" and that contrary to his earlier remarks, Jews didn't control the media or any industry for that matter.
That wasn't good enough for Saban.
"His love of [Venezuelan president Hugo] Chavez has always bothered me, but here he went too far, and his apology is sooooo transparently fake," Saban wrote. "He should be embarrassed by it, and has certainly done nothing to calm my outrage at this guy's positions."
Saban, a major stakeholder in Univision and chairman of Saban Capital Group, said he is spreading the word among his Hollywood friends to avoid working with Stone.

[Charles Drago]

This has all the earmarks of a pre-championship fight weigh-in altercation -- an event designed to increase audience size.

That being noted, here are Oliver Stone's remarks that so "offended" the Israel lobby:

While "Hitler was a Frankenstein [monster]," Stone said, "there was also a Dr. Frankenstein: German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support."

Stone continued: "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 million [killed]."

Instead of screaming "Anti-Semite!" and "We're offended!", perhaps these professional Offendees would care to point out the factual inaccuracies in Stone's comments.

[Keith Millea]

Saban said he considers Stone to be "clearly an anti-Semite and an anti-American."

What a damn foolish remark......

The last time I looked,Oliver Stone earned the Bronze Star,along with a Purple Heart W/oak leaf cluster(wounded more than once).This idiot Saban needs to keep his mouth shut about who he calls Un-American..........:monkeypiss:

[Greg Burnham]

Stone's comments were spot on. There is something subcutaneously at work here. Not at the level of the bones or muscle tissue--its just below the surface--almost visible. Perhaps Charles is correct and its nothing more than a somewhat cleverly disguised ad campaign to attract attention.

[Charles Drago]

Indeed, Greg.

To be clear, once again I've rejected an either/or analysis here and suspect that this sturm und drang may be played up to heighten the viewing public's interest AND have any number of deep political subtexts -- from testing the public's willingness to go along with censorship and/or its level of sympathy for the "special relationship," to a counter-move to balance the recent successful (?) efforts to ban the Kennedy mini-series hit piece, or ...