CONTROVERSY OVER KENNEDY MINISERIES REIGNITED

Following this week’s announcement that Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes will star as John and Jacqueline Kennedy in the forthcoming eight-hour miniseries The Kennedys on the History Channel, the questions that arose on the series’ original announcement last year, about whether it was contrived as a hatchet job, were being raised again. In announcing the casting, Nancy Dubuc, president general manager of the channel, said, “When History announced this ambitious project in December our goal was A-list auspices behind and in front of the camera. The amazing cast we announced today is emblematic of that goal.” However, as Britain’s Guardian newspaper commented today (Friday). “It’s the A-list auspices behind the camera that have proven controversial.” The miniseries was created by Joel Surnow, the creator of 24, a maverick conservative in liberal Hollywood. The original script was attacked by documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism) and former Kennedy adviser Theodore Sorenson, who called it “vindictive, malicious.” History Channel has since said that they were reacting to an early draft and that the final script has been vetted by numerous historians.