When the Rathergate movie Truth was released in 2015 — with Robert Redford playing Dan Rather and Cate Blanchett playing Mary Mapes as the heroes of the story — I turned to Edward Jay Epstein for advice. Ed has devoted three books to the assassination of JFK. I asked him how he had dealt with the likes of Oliver Stone and his film JFK, in which New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison is portrayed as the hero who pierced the alleged conspiracy to kill the president.
Ed’s book Counterplot (1969) was the second of his three books on the assassination. In it he took a deep dive into Garrison’s world. Suffice it to say that Ed did not see Garrison as a hero or come to the conclusion that Garrison had pierced any conspiracy. At his site Ed has posted his 1993 Atlantic article “JFK: Oliver Stone’s Fictional Reality.” Ed had even debated Stone on the subject.
Ed, I should add, is also the author of The Hollywood Economist and The Big Picture, both on the underlying realities of the movie business. He was the man to answer my question.
Ed responded concisely: “Everything Hollywood produces is fiction, including documentaries.” I call it Epstein’s law.
In its cover story today (cover above) the New York Post gives us a preview of coming attractions: “Hunter Biden’s ‘sugar brother’ Kevin Morris plots gauzy documentary on first son.” It promises to give us another prominent example of Epstein’s law in action:
Lights, camera … corruption!
First son Hunter Biden’s so-called “sugar brother,” Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris, is backing a soft-focus documentary on the disgraced and indicted presidential offspring.
While the first son’s life as viewed through his now-infamous laptop resembles a Quentin Tarantino film — with plenty of not-so-tasteful nudity — the untitled Morris project would show a more gentle Hunter “painting, selling his art, raising his son, and navigating everyday life as a sober adult with ongoing criminal investigations and in the crosshairs of [former President Donald] Trump and his supporters,” the Los Angeles Times credulously reported this week.
A film crew has been trailing Hunter, 53, for years and was most recently spotted recording the first son publicly defying a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee to sit for a deposition Dec. 13.
The Post has also noted the presence of cameras around the Biden scion, including when Hunter cozied up to one of our reporters at a December 2022 showing off his surprisingly pricey work at Soho’s Georges Berges gallery.
This is anti-climactic: “There is no current release date for the flick, but if it ever does show up at a theater or streaming service near you, it may be among the costliest openings in history.”
There is more where that came from in the story by Melissa Koenig and Ryan King — with additional reporting contributed by Miranda Devine. As always, my favorite part of the story is the no-comment: “The Post has reached out to Morris for comment.”
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