By Jeffrey Jolson
Watergate film redux for Plamegate
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/6/06 — Valerie Plame and Warner Bros.’ planned movie about the “Plamegate” CIA leak scandal may now have a rousing ending like Watergate film “All the President’s Men.” A federal jury today convicted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby of lying about his role in the leak of her undercover status, ending the seven-week trial of the highest-ranking White House official to be indicted on criminal charges in modern times.
Jurors found the vice president’s former chief of staff guilty of two counts of perjury, one of making false statements and one of obstruction of justice, while acquitting him of a single count of lying to the FBI. He could serve as many as 30 years in jail, though his likely term will be 1 ½ to 3 years.
The big issue here was whether the President and Vice President were railroading America into war in late 2002 while silencing dissenting opinion and ignoring reports contrary to their plans. Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his personal investigations countered a claim that WMD ingredients were being purchased by Iraq, that Bush later cited in his State-of-the-Union address. It is alleged that those behind the leak, including Karl Rove in Bush’s office, hoped to discredit the outspoken Wilson with a political dirty trick that leaked Plame’s name as a CIA operative. 
Even the Watergate dirty tricks hearings during the Nixon administration never produced a conviction against anyone nearly as high up in the White House as a chief of staff. The 1976 movie “All the President’s Men,” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman featured the heroes’ efforts to unveil wrongdoings that went all the way to the White House. It reached a cinematic emotional finale when the typewriter that was printing out headlines of the unfolding scandal ended with “Nixon Resigns.”
Plame and Wilson get
revenge Hollywood style
While that scenario is unlikely to repeat with only 18 months left in the Bush administration and no proof of what Bush knew and when, the movie may have some closure with the Libby conviction, even though he said Tuesday he plans to appeal. Lewis and Plame are also plaintiffs in an ongoing civil lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, President Bush’s political hatchet man Karl Rove and Libby.
WB secured the life rights of Wilson and Plame so that their story, so far starring Alec Baldwin, will be told even if they don’t get permission from the CIA to use Plame’s memoir, “Fair Game.” Plame made a publishing deal in the $2.5 million range last year, and Simon & Schuster is expected to publish late this year. The film is co-production between Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind,” The DaVinci Code”) and Jerry Zucker (the “Aiplane” and “Naked Gun” franchises) and Janet Zucker.