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VIEWPOINT: Don’t get into bed with Hollywood, Kofi!
03 Feb 2004
Nicole Kidman smiles at the American Cinematheque Awards in November 2003.
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Nicole Kidman smiles at the American Cinematheque Awards in November 2003.
Photo by ROBERT GALBRAITH

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Nick Cater, a journalist who writes about disasters, development, the environment, crises and conflict, urges the U.N. to avoid the risky seduction of Hollywood and its celebrities, Nicole Kidman included.

Maybe it is the imminent Oscars, or perhaps United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his colleagues are just as star-struck as many movie fans, but the U.N. is risking its reputation once again by helping out Hollywood.

Annan has agreed to let a thriller called “The Interpreter”, starring Nicole Kidman, ex-wife of Tom Cruise, be filmed inside the U.N. headquarters in New York, a first in the organisation’s history.

Filming will only take place at weekends and at night when the U.N. is not in session, while the deal is subject to further negotiation over details, but basically the green light has been given, Annan’s spokesperson told a media briefing.

Kidman plays an interpreter who overhears an assassination plot while working at the U.N. and then has to stop an African diplomat getting killed during a speech to the global organisation. The film is to be directed by Sydney Pollack, whose credits include “Tootsie”, “Out of Africa” and “Absence of Malice”.

One senior U.N. official has been quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying: “It could be, in effect, a free commercial for the U.N. -- a thriller made by a top-notch filmmaker with a stellar cast. It will reach far more millions of people than any public relations initiative.”

EMBARRASSING

That’s assuming fans of Kidman and co-star Sean Penn are able to glean anything about the U.N.’s worldwide work in humanitarian crises, development, human rights and justice from dialogue laced with threats, conspiracies and murder.

Or perhaps the film could end up portraying international organisations and their staff as wayward, dangerous and unethical, as did one recent embarrassing film, “Beyond Borders”, which was about an emergency relief NGO and starred Angelina Jolie, Goodwill Ambassador for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Annan appeared to endorse that film by joining UNHCR boss Ruud Lubbers at the New York premier and its reception. The film’s director was quoted suggesting the secretary-general was positive about the project, something the U.N. later denied.

Despite Jolie's direct experience of humanitarian crises, the film included a plot line in which the NGO smuggled guns for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, while local people were portrayed as either passive and incompetent or brutal warlords.

It flopped badly in the United States amid mostly negative reviews.

It is said that Annan first turned down the request for filming access for “The Interpreter”, concerned about disruption and whether the project showed U.N. values in a good light, but reversed that decision after reviewing the script and meeting Pollack.

Movies previously barred from filming inside the U.N. include Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic “North by Northwest”, starring Cary Grant, in which a murder suspect flees through the U.N.’s corridors and rooms – recreated elsewhere as film sets – and another Kidman film, “The Peacemaker”, in which she and George Clooney prevented the U.N. being destroyed by a nuclear bomb.

While the U.N. probably needs the U.S. public to appreciate it rather more than President George W. Bush seems to do, a thriller in which its headquarters appears as the location for a would-be violent attack seems unlikely to convey the right impression of an organisation established to pursue peace.

RISKS

This is especially so in the wake of last year’s bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, when poor security systems were among the factors blamed for the deaths of more than 20 people.

It all highlights the risks for national charities, international aid agencies and even venerated global institutions of getting involved with celebrities, whose priorities can end up distorting or obscuring vital causes or ethical issues.

The idea of the film and its star names are already turning heads, with talk of cameo roles. Annan has not put himself forward, according to the LA Times, although Pollack was predictably flattering: "He's a very handsome and dapper man. He could be a movie star."

Security Council member and Chilean Ambassador Heraldo Munoz put one condition on his permission for the filming -- a meeting with Kidman. His Spanish colleague, Inocencio Arias, asked how to become an extra.

Mind you, it could all be a lot worse. Tom Cruise’s present partner, Penelope Cruz, is starring in a rival thriller, “Sahara”, based on a Clive Cussler book that needed no permission to depict a U.N. scientist tackling an environmental crisis in which water contamination turns Africans into crazed cannibals.

Africans sent mad or murdered, shootings in the General Assembly and bizarre conspiracies all round – surely Annan should rethink his welcome for Hollywood, with its shaky grasp on reality and warped approach to international issues.

© Copyright Nick Cater 2004

Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters.


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