"Hoax" revives famed 1970s literary lie on film
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes famously broke his silence in the 1970s to denounce a fake autobiography, a yarn he considered more wild and imaginative than any script he had ever seen in Hollywood.
"I only wish I were still in the movie business," he said at the time.
Thirty-five years later comes "The Hoax," the film the late Hughes never made about the roguish author Clifford Irving and the great literary fib he perpetrated. It opens in the United States on Friday.
Directed by Swedish Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom and starring Richard Gere as Irving, "The Hoax" traces the amazing string of lies that duped the cosmopolitan New York publishing world and made Irving the talk of the town, both before and after his bust by the real Howard Hughes.
"I remember it quite clearly," said Gere. "It was on the cover of Time magazine and it was news constantly. It was a big deal, bigger than anything else."
Based on Irving's book of the same name, the film begins with the struggling writer convincing his editor that he has met Hughes and the recluse has asked him to pen his memoirs.
With the help of a sidekick writer played by Alfred Molina and a sacrificing Swedish wife portrayed by Oscar-winning Marcia Gay Harden, Irving travels the country to dredge up exclusive information from people who had worked for Hughes.
Every time his publishers begin to have doubts about the veracity of Hughes' participation, Irving ups the ante and delivers more, like fake recordings and handwriting that experts say are bona fide.
'AN EVEN BIGGER LIE'
Gere relished the challenges that Irving faced and learned to speak like Hughes by listening to original recordings. The actor famed for his gray locks and good looks dons a prosthetic nose and bushy brown hair to play his philandering character, who betrays his wife, friends and publishers.
"Like kids caught in a lie, you have to come up with an even bigger lie to cover the small lie," said Gere.
But both Gere and Hallstrom said one of the most intriguing parts of the story is that, while spinning his web of lies, Irving may have unwittingly become a player in the lead-up to the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.
"The Watergate scandal break-in might not have happened if it weren't for this book," said Hallstrom.
The film's production and writing teams said the book coincided with a time when Nixon had ample reason to fear that the powerful Hughes could destroy his administration. After extensive research, they contend that his fear led to the 1972 break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
But for all the film team's research, the line between fact and fiction is often blurred in the movie -- in part because Irving proves to be a not-so-reliable source on his own life.
Irving, who spent a few years in prison and now lives in New Mexico, has flip-flopped, even on his initial support for the film.
"He loved it when he saw it the first time, but now I hear he has turned on it," said Hallstrom.
"I don't think I could trust a piece of information that came from him. That's a terrible thing to say, but that is how I feel."
