In a letter sent Monday by a high-powered law firm to Warner Bros. and Clint Eastwood, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution accused the studio and filmmakers behind the iconic director’s historically based film “Richard Jewell” of “false and malicious” portrayals of the paper and its reporters, particularly a female journalist whose reporting helped turn a real-life hero into a public villain. In an interview with The Associated Press, Eastwood was asked to address the controversy and responded by pointing to the paper’s apparent motivation for launching the attack on him and the studio.
“Richard Jewell,” which is generating Oscars buzz, tells the historically based story of a security guard who discovered a pipe bomb in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics and worked to get others clear of the area. Though his heroic actions saved lives, he went from hero to villain after the media, including AJC’s late-Kathy Scruggs, reported that he had become the FBI’s top suspect.
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