|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
Disney and The Pentagon: Dating on the Taxpayers Money |
Current rating: 0 |
by Drudge
(No verified email address) |
21 May 2001
|
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MONDAY MAY 21, 2001 10:29:48 ET XXXXX
PENTAGON CRITICIZED FOR SENDING NUKE SHIP TO DISNEY PARTY
Is it military preparedness? Or movie preparedness? |
The question being asked in the nation's capital this week as the Pentagon comes under heavy fire for ordering the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier John C. Stennis to sail from San Diego to Pearl Harbor -- for a DISNEY movie premiere!
At a time when the Pentagon's budget is being carefully reviewed by Congress, and as Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld is doing a top-down review of the entire U.S. military, the Pentagon sailed the Pacific Fleet's largest aircraft carrier from San Diego to Hawaii to hold the movie premiere of DISNEY's big-budget action thriller PEARL HARBOR on its flight deck.
Stars Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin and Josh Hartnett are expected to board The Stennis for the party celebrating the launch of the $135 million epic movie. More than 2,500 invited guests including military brass, Washington politicians and Hollywood executives have are expected to attend.
'Did Rumsfeld sign-off on this?" one senior lawmaker asked on Monday. "I can't imagine what business of the nation is being served here."
DISNEY paid more than $1 million for military assistance in the making of HARBOR. It is not clear if the studio has reimbursed the United States Treasury for the cost of sailing the ship to the movie premiere
Dick Cook, chairman of WALT DISNEY Motion Pictures Group, is credited with convincing the Navy to allow use of The Stennis.
"What next? Leasing out a nuke sub for Spielberg parties?" jabbed one Washington insider in disbelief. "I mean, we're all for privatization, but isn't this taking it a bit too far?"
For its part, DISNEY claims it has worked hard to keep the spectacle of a Hollywood showbiz premiere from overshadowing Pearl Harbor's place in U.S. history and the veterans who died on Dec. 7, 1941.
"The publicity is great because we wanted to get their (the veterans) story out. That's what we really wanted," Lylle Breier, senior vice president of special events, told reporters this weekend.
Meanwhile, DISNEY executives are internally projecting an opening Memorial Day boxoffice gross of $75 million, according to studio sources. |
See also:
http://www.drudgereport.com/pearl.htm
|
