Anna Nicole Smith is still making headlines from beyond the grave.
Author and TV correspondent Rita Cosby has big trouble ahead: a judge has approved a jury trial for a libel case relating to a book Cosby authored in 2007 about Anna Nicole Smith. Cosby's book Blonde Ambition made a number of sensational allegations relating to the late actress and her lovers Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead (who is the father of Smith's daughter). Stern's suit claims that Cosby used information she knew or suspected was false in order to rush out a book about the actress, whose bizarre life and death became a media sensation. According to Cosby, Stern pimped out the drug addicted Smith to as many as 50 men a year. She also claims that Smith had a videotape of her rival lovers, Stern and Birkhead, having sex with each other. No tape has materialized and both men strongly deny the allegation. Cosby made a frantic trip to the Bahamas in order to talk with Smith's daughter's nannies, who she alleged also watched the video. The plan backfired when Cosby ended up meeting with a representative of one of the nannys and offered to pay money in return for her signing an affidavit verifying she saw the sex tape. The conversation was recorded. The judge ruled that Cosby may well have used unsubstantiated stories in an attempt to rush out the book, which became a best-seller. Cosby had been a high profile fixture with her own program on Fox News before she was let go by the network. She is now a correspondent for the syndicated program Inside Edition. For more click here
In
1964 the BBC, as part of their regular “Wednesday Play†series, produced a 90-
minute drama based on the assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944. John Carson
played Col. Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, now best known for being
played by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie. I’ve not seen that, so I can’t compare
them, although I imagine there are a vast number of differences. As a TV play,
as opposed to a filmed drama, this is quite stagey, with a limited number of
studio sets, and some filmed inserts. There is also an awful lot of talking.
However, it is still an excellent production, which benefitted not only from
some outstanding performances, but also a talented director in the German
Rudolph Cartier. He was incredibly experienced in British television, having shot
a number of well known shows including the original live The Quatermass
Experiment a decade earlier.
The
July Plot
is being screened at the BFI in two weeks as part of its “Missing, Believed
Wiped†segment. I was fortunate enough to be at a screening two weeks ago as
part of a John Carson tribute at the Cine Lumiere in London. John himself was
in attendance, and it was exciting to think that nobody, including him, had
seen it for over 40 years.
Rather
surprisingly, during the opening credits we follow von Stauffenberg and his
briefcase containing the bomb through the various levels of security until he
places it besides Hitler. We follow the action immediately afterwards, as his
co-conspirators wait for confirmation of Hitler’s death and begin to roll out
their plans for the takeover of the military and the police. It is tense stuff,
despite the fact that we know Hitler was no more than scratched, due to someone
else in the room moving the bomb behind a table leg. It is so frustrating to
think that this really happened. If this was a Hollywood movie the plot would
have worked and the war would have been over. The play rather poignantly
reminds the audience of how many more people died in that final year of the war
after von Stauffenberg and his comrades are caught and executed. It’s a
sobering thought, and leaves you feeling some of the frustration they no doubt
felt when they realised it was all over.
Cinema Retro London correspondent Adrian Smith with John Carson, star of The July Plot
You
can book tickets to see The July Plot
for yourself at the BFI Southbank in London on the 22nd August by clicking here.It’s highly recommended, and it can only be
hoped that following its rediscovery and restoration the BBC will make this
important piece of work available on DVD.