This fall, spy fans were treated
to one of the most interesting metamorphosis’s on the web. In September, Spy Television author Wes Britton
transformed his personal webpage into www.spywise.net, making this diverse site a distinctive
resource on all aspects of espionage.
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When www.Spywise.net debuted on
September 1st, Wes brought over many of the exclusive articles,
reviews, and interviews from his previous digs including talks with the likes of
actors Robert Conrad and Robert Vaughn along with behind-the-scenes looks into
notable independent films and books on The Saint, I Spy, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Over the years, Wes
has interviewed creators of spy-related comic books and documentaries. Â Â Â Â
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Now, one new aspect of
Spywise.net is that it is no longer a one-man production. Now, you can find
chapters and selected material from a variety of new books like a new interview
with Mission: Impossible’s Peter Lupus by Eddie
Lucas and the story of a never made I Spy movie as revealed by expert Mark
Cushman. Wes got the rights to publish the first authorized online edition of O.
F. Snelling’s classic 1964 James Bond: A
Report, including material never published anywhere else. In the pipeline
are features by spy babe expert Tom Lisanti and a photo essay on the surprising
world of “Zorro the Spy.â€
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Wes is making the rounds to
further expand the archives of Spywise.net. For example, on Oct. 22, he dined
with Eli (Magnificent Seven) Wallach
at the Pennsylvania Jewish Film Festival in
Scranton, PA.
“I was invited to the festival,†Wes reports, “by Harvey Chertok, producer of
the great docu-drama, The Impossible
Spy. Wallach had played actual Mossad spymaster Meir Amit in that film, the
true story of Israeli spy Eli Cohen.â€
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“Before the screening of The Impossible Spy,†Wes says, “I tried
to get Eli to share some anecdotes, and it was difficult as in between every
third and fourth sentence, some attendee or another wanted their photo taken
with the 91-year-old actor. Including me, I’m not embarrassed to admit.  He talked a bit about his World War II
experiences as a medical technician in the Orient and
Casablanca. He was with his actress
wife, Anne Jackson, whom Eli kept reminding everyone has a cousin who owns the
Pittsburgh Steelers. When I told him I was a Dallas Cowboys fan, he replied, `I
have played a lot of cowboys.’â€
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Just before we saw the 1987
HBO/BBC film, Wallach was honored with a lifetime achievement award. He told the
audience that he had introduced his friend, Clint Eastwood, at many honor
ceremonies and that Eastwood had promised to return the favor if Wallach ever
got such an honor. “Well, Eastwood didn’t make it to
Scranton,†Wes says, “but he did
send a nice telegram to the festival.â€
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The morning after the successful
festivities, Wallach was stunned to read a report about the evening in the local
paper where it was reported he’d converted to Roman Catholicism. “If you read
that article,†Wes warns, “remember not to believe everything you see in print.
It isn’t true.â€
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Spywise.net is a site to bookmark
if you’re an enthusiast of undercover operatives in fact and fiction. You can
also keep up with interesting spy items at his blog,
thespyreport.livejournal.com
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