Bomb experts quickly determined that the knapsack contained a crude pipe bomb, and while police were clearing the area, the bomb exploded.. The lawsuit remained pending for several years, having been considered at one time by the Supreme Court of Georgia, and had become an important part of case law regarding whether journalists could be forced to reveal their sources. Despite the portrayal of Scruggs, Richard Jewell is a serviceable yet unspectacular film. She flaunted her sexuality. Roughton said he had read Rays 2015 screenplay and it gave [him] pause both the scene implying a sex-for-information scenario and the scripts flattening of some people into stereotypes. It was obviously an invalid waiver.. [35], In 2006, Jewell said the lawsuits were not about money, and that the vast majority of the settlements went to lawyers or taxes. I regret the leak. Without Jewells watchful eye, the tragedy could have been many times worse. She was accurate., The newspapers publisher Roger Kintzel said in that story, nothing was ever found that indicated that what Kathy wrote was not the truth. The movie, which premiered Nov. 20 at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, is another of Eastwoods films depicting the dark side of celebrated heroes, according to The Times Glenn Whipp. Her daughter was also injured. It was just hard living, her brother said to the publication. Nevertheless, for all of the reasons noted supra, we conclude that the trial court did not err in denying Jewells motion to compel or in granting the Media Defendants summary judgment on Jewells claims.. "[26] Even though NBC stood by its story, the network agreed to pay Jewell $500,000. GettyJon Hamm plays Tom Shaw, the FBI agent investigating Richard Jewell in the new Clint Eastwood movie. The four were identified as Woody Johnson, who runs the Atlanta office; his deputy, A.B. But he said she never told him who the source was, either. He obtained settlements from CNN and NBC after suing them. A woman he took on a date published a written account of the evening in a city magazine. After nearly threemonths in 1996, Richard Jewell, who worked as a nighttime security guard at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park, was cleared by the FBI. The actress said people have a hard time accepting sexuality in female characters without letting it define the character entirely. Tom Shaw and Dan Bennett appear to be loosely based on Don Johnson and Diader Rosario but are also composite characters, and some of it is completely fictionalized. He is currently serving four life sentences without possibility of parole. [7][8], Jewell was born Richard White in Danville, Virginia, the son of Bobi, an insurance claims coordinator, and Robert Earl White, who worked for Chevrolet. Yet he was never charged. WebRichard Jewell expected full clearance, but instead was described as a so-called non-target. Nonetheless, Jewell and his legal team knew the media would portray that as an All Rights Reserved. The culprit, Eric Robert Rudolph, wasnt captured until 2003, after evading the FBI for five years and perpetrating three other bombings. The article said that Jewell was mobbed by reporters as he returned home from FBI questioning. He declared, Im innocent. Children asked for autographs. Jewell died in 2007 at his home in Woodbury, Ga., after months of serious medical problems following a diabetes diagnosis earlier that year. "The problem with it all was that it was so sensationalized," he said. Clint Eastwood has spent the majority of his life in the public eye dealing with media coverage. The primary concern, as I I feel a certain responsibility to defend [Scruggs] legacy which has now been, I think unfairly, boiled down to one element of her personality, one inferred moment in the film, Wilde said. An Associated Press story in the Scranton Times-Tribune, dated August 6, 1996, describes how Bryant explained to the news media that bombing fragments found in Jewells apartment were souvenirs. The Vanity Fair article on the case documents the FBIs aggressive pursuit of Jewell. Eastwood takes a relatively simple approach in telling Jewells story, allowing many moments for his actors to breathe. An autopsy was performed in September 3, 2001. Dont let these Hollywood pretenders get you down! But enraged by what he saw as the unfair treatment of Jewell, he took up his friends defense with ferocious intensity. or redistributed. He was 45 years old, with strong features and thinning hair, a southern preppy from a country-club family, it reads. Three months later, in a letter to one of Jewells lawyers, the Justice Department made it official: Richard Jewell wasnt the man they were looking for. I guess that they knew that their false narrative would have been shot down by people that actually knew her best. A 2003 article in the New York Daily News reported that Jewell later worked for other departments in Georgia towns and got married. The marriage resulted in divorce. Sadly, Jewell died at age 44 of heart disease worsened by Diabetes. Jewell, a former sheriffs deputy and later a campus police officer, was working security at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when he came across a suspicious backpack near his post at a light and sound tower at Centennial Olympic Park. This leaves little space for nuance, said Bert Roughton, who was Scruggs editor when the Jewell story broke, in a September AJC opinion piece. Jewell was chosen in keeping with the parade's theme of "Unsung Heroes. The law caught up with Rudolph in 2003. She didnt show favoritism. Such a portrayal makes it appear that the AJC sexually exploited its staff and/or that it facilitated or condoned offering sexual gratification to sources in exchange for stories. In Clint Eastwoods Richard Jewell, righteousness is the name of the game. He worked as a deputy sheriff in Meriwether County, Georgia, until his death. Jewell died in 2007 at age 44. Underwritten and at times slow, the film features a depiction of one of the main characters that is so rabidly villainous it makes the entire film suffer. A special edition of The Atlanta Journal hit newsstands on July 30, 1996, a pivotal headline splashed across the front page: F.B.I. [37][38][39][40][41] Jewell is played by Paul Walter Hauser[42] while Kathy Bates played mother Bobi (for which she earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination). Government officials and news organizations descended on the apartment Jewell shared with his mother. That article says the NBC settlement was over comments Tom Brokaw made on air. "[3], Initially hailed by the media as a hero, Jewell was soon considered a suspect by the FBI and local law enforcement based on psychological profiling. She spent all the money she had and more and would go into the depths of depression., The headline on the original story was, FBI suspects hero guard may have planted bomb.. Wilde defended her portrayal of Scruggs last week, saying she had an immense amount of respect for the reporter, who died in 2001 from an overdose of prescription pain pills. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. He said that Jewell was looking at the knapsack at 12:53 a.m. and the 911 call was at 12:58 a.m., which gave Jewell five minutes to make it to the phone booth, which Leidelmeyer said was just not possible. Leidelmeyer had log books to back up these times, but that didnt stop the FBI, and subsequently the media, from fixating on Richard Jewell as a possible suspect. Even some of the tiny details in the movie are based on real life. Still, the constant media attention he received at the height of the investigation had turned him into a public figure. Richard Jewell Real Story: Whats True & Whats Not, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. He discovered a backpack containing three pipe bombs on the park grounds[1] and helped evacuate the area before the bomb exploded, saving many people from injury or death. Jewell died of complications of diabetes in 2007, at age 44. In Clint Eastwoods Richard Jewell, righteousness is the name of the game. Kathy Bates as Bobi Jewell, Richard's mother, Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser in 'Richard Jewell', The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election. Wilde has come out and defended the character on Twitter amid the backlash, but several real-life figures involved with Jewells case slammed the films portrayal of Scruggs. Within two days of the bombing, the media was labeling Jewell a hero. AT&T had hired Jewell and others through a security firm to keep an eye on its five-story sound and light tower in Centennial Olympic Park. Get our L.A. A look back on our reporting to understand the story. The AJCs reporter is reduced to a sex-trading object in the film, says the letter, which according to the AJC was sent to Warner Bros., Eastwood, screenwriter Billy Ray and others. !, Doug Monroe, who knew and worked with Scruggs, described her in a 2003 article in Atlanta Magazine as having a raucous sense of humor. He wrote: Cops still talk in amazement about her bravado. Go to Fox Nationto start a free trial and watch the extensive library from Tomi Lahren, Pete Hegseth, Abby Hornacek, Laura Ingraham, Ainsley Earhardt, Greg Gutfeld, Judge Andrew Napolitano and many more of your favorite Fox News personalities. Photos from the real story of Richard Jewell. ESPN reported that Jewell's cause of death was a heart attack. He has experience. Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. Its true that she was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper when the bombing occurred, and its true she broke the story that the FBI was looking at Jewell. On July 30, 1996, the media identified Richard Jewell as the F.B.I. And its true, as the movie shows, that the timing pretty much exonerated Jewell from the start. GettyEric Robert Rudolph, seen here in an undated photo, is the one-time carpenter who vanished in early 1998 and vaulted to the FBIs Most Wanted list after a bombing at a Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic. And, most of all, he wants to be a police officer.. AJC says that the FBI kept Jewell under surveillance for months. The article says that Jewell was questioned by FBI agents but was never charged and the Justice Department ultimately apologized to him. I was more nervous about meeting Bobi than I was Clint, because Clint and I have a certain commonality based on what we do for a living. Richard Jewell was cleared and called a hero, again Shutterstock Ironically, he was cleared in part because the person who actually planted the bomb, Eric Rudolph, called the Atlanta Police Department at 12:58 a.m. the morning it was set to detonate and told them they had 30 minutes before it would go off, per the FBI. My apartment was bugged," Bobi Jewell said on Fox and Friends. If my mom and I had something we wanted to talk about that we didnt want anyone to hear, we wrote it on pieces of paper. Spectators in Atlanta and around the world, unnerved by violence at an event that celebrates global unity, were anxious for answers. On August 7, 1996, the AP was reporting that Bryant had declared, Enough is enough. She dated cops, including one who was accused of stealing money from the pockets of the dead.. Within days, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Kathy Scruggs and Ron Martz published the scoop: Jewell, the heroic security guard, was the focus of a federal investigation. The movie unfurls a stark morality tale about what happens when the powers that belaw enforcement, the media, the entire world, it seemsgang up on a couple of lionhearted little guys. Jewell also sought legal action for the way he was characterized in the press, winning settlements from CNN and NBC. To Vanity Fair, Richard Jewell described how people would holler obscenities at her (Bobi). I worry about Eastwoods version of Kathy. [21] In 2001, Jewell was honored as the Grand Marshal of Carmel, Indiana's Independence Day Parade. Through those trials, Jewell benefited from an unconventional partnership with his lawyer Watson Bryant, as depicted in the film. Magazines, Digital WebWhile Jewell was never officially charged, a Justice Department investigation of the FBIs conduct later revealed that the FBI had tried to convince Jewell that he should waive his WebJewell is slow to realize the FBIs increasingly serious inquiry, but Hauser captures Jewells growing disillusionment with subtlety, as he finally begins to doubt the very things he While the actors are trying their best, these moments rarely add more than a slight chuckle. Hes physically huge, yet somehow he shrinks; his Southern accent is rich and slow, Richard Jewell is an accomplishment in reminding us that the man was, after all, a hero. They would yell, Did he do it? Paul Walter Hauser, left, with director Clint Eastwood during the filming of Richard Jewell., Olivia Wilde plays the late Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs in Richard Jewell.. Richard Jewell's mother Bobi and his attorney Watson Bryant react to the true story of the 1996 Olympic bombing being told on the big screen. Eventually, domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph was identified by the FBI as the attacker. Check out the performances that shook the campus. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the Clint Eastwood-directed film salaciously and falsely portrays former reporter Kathy Scruggs trading sex for FBI tips. Richard Jewell really was the hero of the Olympic bombing. The above photos show Jewell and one of his real life attorneys, Lin Wood. A skilled outdoorsman, Rudolph had managed to elude law enforcement officials for five years while hiding out in the mountains after bombing four sites in Georgia and Alabama. Maybe he wanted to play hero for 15 minutes. It was described as a crude pipe bomb.. Jewell. Richard Jewell is portrayed by Cameron Britton.[44]. "[34] The college settled for an undisclosed amount. Small details in the movie are also accurate. The letter did not include an apology, but in a separate statement issued by Alexander, the U.S. Justice Department regretted the leaking of the investigation. Legal Statement. It would take time for officials to track down the right one: Eric Robert Rudolph, an anti-abortion militant who, in 1998, was linked to other bombings, but evaded police for years. There is an actor who plays Rosario in the movie, but thats not the Tom Shaw or Dan Bennett character, according to the IMDB cast list for the Eastwood film. It reported that Scruggs had good contacts in the Atlanta police, and she was tough but one former staff member called her a police groupie to Vanity Fair, and an editor, while praising her talents, told Brenner: Kathy has a hard edge that some people find offensive. The story also describes the subsequent media frenzy, which extended far beyond AJC, and the FBIs initial pursuit of Jewell. And while Jewells good name was eventually cleared, he and his family suffered tremendously as a result of this ordeal. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Market data provided by Factset. While the film does allow its actors to shine, its understated nature also leads to a film that struggles to keep viewers attentive. Movies often reduce complex people to types. Warner Bros., the studio behind the movie, responded, calling the papers claims baseless and defending the film, which they say was based on a wide range of highly credible source material, according to a statement obtained by Variety. "[25] In one article, the Journal-Constitution compared Jewell's case to that of serial killer Wayne Williams. The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta were rocked by a bomb that killed one and injured more than 100. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. She is 83 years old and still living in Georgia. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? While the newspaper did not cite its sources for this information, Eastwoods movie depicts a female reporter offering sex to an F.B.I. The bombings really sprang from his own unique biases and prejudices. He couldnt go outside not without setting off a high-speed car chase of government vehicles and media vans, anyway. However, Eastwoods straightforward storytelling methods in Richard Jewell are both the films greatest assets and weaknesses. That is entirely false and malicious, and it is extremely defamatory and damaging., Another point of contention is the representation of the newspapers behavior around the 1996 story. WebNearly 25 years after she lived through "88 days of hell," Bobi Jewell's emotions seem just as raw as they were when her son, Richard Jewell, was first identified as the main
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