Did Hollywood bigwigs help Israel buy arms in the 1970s and '80s?
Longtime Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan
says they did, in an interview set to air Monday on the Israeli
investigative journalism program 'Uvda.'
Hollywood producer, Arnon Milchan in 2003.
Arnon Milchan and Yair Lapid have kept up a close friendship, which includes sing-along nights at the Genki Club in Tel Aviv.
Hollywood is always on the lookout for blockbuster
stories, and this coming Monday it will get the juicy details about how a
producer working in Tinseltown since the late 1970s led a double life
as an arms dealer and Israeli intelligence operative.
Arnon
Milchan, the Israeli producer of such smash hits as "Fight Club,"
"Pretty Woman," and hundreds of other films, is opening up for the first
time ever about his involvement in clandestine deals to acquire arms
for Israel and his work to promote the country's alleged nuclear
program.
The
film tycoon sat down with Israeli investigative journalist Ilana Dayan
for the season premiere of her current affairs show "Uvda" ("Fact"), in
which he discusses his efforts to engage Hollywood colleagues in his
work for Israel's Defense Ministry. Keshet's show is scheduled to air
Monday, November 25, on Israel's Channel 2.
This
isn’t the first time Milchan's role in Israeli arms dealings and
intelligence has surfaced: Just two years ago authors Meir Doron and
Joseph Gelman published a book titled “Confidential: The Life of Secret
Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan" – which alleged that
Milchan was an operative for Israel's Bureau of Scientific Relations.
The bureau, headed by spy-masters Benjamin Blumberg and Rafi Eitan,
gathered information for secret defense-related programs, including
Israel's alleged nuclear program. The bureau was closed after Jonathan
Pollard was arrested for spying on behalf of Israel in 1986.
The
"Uvda" report does, however, contain some shocking new details about
Milchan's work, including claims that other Hollywood bigwigs like the
legendary, late director Sydney Pollack and at least one other Academy
Award-winning actor, both figured into his work for Israel.
The
report reveals that Pollack, who died in 2008, acquired arms and other
military equipment for Israel in the 1970s. When asked if Pollack knew
about the details of the deals, Milchan tells Dayan, "Pollack knew, but I
didn't want to scare him because he's American… He could have said
'no.' He said 'no' many times, but he also said 'yes' many times."
Milchan
also tells Dayan that he used at least one big-name actor's star
quality to lure U.S. scientist Arthur Biehl – an expert on nuclear
weapons and a co-developer of the hydrogen bomb – to a meeting.
According to the report, Milchan invited Biehl to the actor's home under
the pretense that the actor was seeking scientific advice for a project
he was working on.
Milchan
said he thought Biehl would cooperate because, "Anyone who lives in
California is a 'star-fucker…' They hear 'star'…they come running."
The
producer also confides in Dayan that his double-life wasn't always easy
to lead, particularly when what he really wanted was to dedicate
himself to filmmaking. "In Hollywood they don’t like working with an
arms dealer, ideologically," he said. "[They don't like working] with
someone who lives off selling machine guns and killing. Instead of
someone talking to me about a script, I had to spend half an hour
explaining that I'm not an arms dealer..."
Milchan
continued, "If people knew how many times I risked my life, back and
forth, again and again, for my country. And suddenly, [I have to] defend
myself – 'I'm not an arms dealer, I don't sell guns, I don't sell
rockets ' I should have been aware of that, of what I'll go through, and
said, 'Fuck you.' You know what, I did it for my country and I'm proud
of it."
The show also features interviews with Robert De Niro, Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and other major Hollywood players.
Meanwhile,
New Regency films, Milchan's company, is working on four films slated
for release in 2013-14, including "Noah," a Darren Aronofsky-directed
take on the Biblical flood story starring Russell Crowe, Emma Watson and
Anthony Hopkins.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.559310