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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 17 November 2018

Party joke or morality tale? New film re-examines Gary Hart

By JOCELYN NOVECK their own takeaway from
Associated Press the Hart story. For Carson,
NEW YORK (AP) — Hey, who worked on numerous
remember Gary Hart? political campaigns
Ask most people, and including for Hillary Clinton,
if they're old enough to it's how "this world where I
remember anything at all, wanted to effect positive
it's that famous photo of change ended up being so
the doomed candidate soul-crushingly awful."
with a smiling Donna Rice Then there's Jackman,
in his lap, on perhaps the who confesses he knew
most unfortunately named little-to-nothing about
yacht in American political Hart beforehand: "I was a
history: "Monkey Business." traveling backpacker on
What most people don't a gap year!" The Aussie
recall, or never even actor traveled to Colorado
knew, is that the photo to spend time with Hart,
emerged two weeks after seeking to portray a multi-
the 1987 scandal had dimensional human being.
ended in Hart's withdrawal This file image released by Sony Pictures shows Hugh Jackman in a scene from "The Front Runner." "Certainly my focus was
from the Democratic Associated Press on Gary and the man he
race, his hugely promising was," Jackman says. "But
political career destroyed Colorado senator who rose a 2014 book by journalist on a Bahamas cruise, was I'm left thinking about the
over suspicions — never fast and fell faster. Matt Bai, seeks to drive believed to be staying. question of principle and
confirmed — that he'd had "The story really plays with home. But the larger point Fiedler and his team ethics." For Hart, but also
an affair with Rice. our sense of memory," is that the Hart saga, far confronted Hart. He refused for other characters in the
The fact that people Reitman says. "First people from a party joke, marked to answer questions about film like campaign workers
assume the photo led to recall 'Monkey Business,' a watershed moment in his private life. Soon after, and journalists, "there were
Hart's humiliating downfall so they're remembering American politics and amid unrelenting scrutiny lines not to be crossed,"
is just one of many ways a joke, and then it's, what culture, with reverberations on his family, he quit the Jackman says, "and it got
in which the whole ordeal was that blonde's name?" that continue to this day. race. simplified down to, 'Did he
is mis-remembered, says The fact that Rice was a Why? Because it was the Hart wasn't exactly the first have an affair or not?'"
Jason Reitman, director of human being (also a Phi moment when politicians American politician to be "It wasn't that simple,"
"The Front Runner," which Beta Kappa college grad) became celebrities, and felled by a sex scandal — Jackman adds. "For Gary,
stars Hugh Jackman in and not just a blonde on a their private lives became seen "Hamilton," anyone? it was the principle of, if
an appropriately tense, boat is one point that "The our public business, even — but before him, routine he starts answering those
anguished turn as the Front Runner," based on our property, Bai argues. sexual peccadilloes were questions, he's going to
It changed political usually considered off-limits. sully the process for other
journalism, too, he says, If they hadn't been, many people, evermore. He felt
and created a different others, say John F. Kennedy like, 'If I start talking about
kind of candidate, perhaps and Lyndon B. Johnson, boxers or briefs, or the
forever. wouldn't have survived. But name of my dog, it's over.'"
"It's this moment in 1987 Hart came along at just the Of course, it was Bill
when the worlds of politics wrong time, says Thomas Clinton who famously
and entertainment collide," Patterson, professor at answered the boxers-or-
says Bai, who co-wrote the Harvard's Kennedy School briefs question. And for his
screenplay with Reitman of Government. own canny survival as a
and former political Patterson argues that candidate, he may have
operative Jay Carson. "And Watergate, obviously the Hart partly to thank, says
when you create a process seminal political scandal Patterson at Harvard.
for selecting leaders that of the '70s, had spawned "Jump ahead four years,
treats them like celebrities, a more aggressive type of and Clinton had learned
you inevitably attract political journalism, tasking from Hart, from his failure
celebrities to your process. reporters with exposing the and the damage it had
So it's supremely relevant." lies of politicians — big or done," he says.
The reference to a certain small. Now jump ahead to today.
current American leader is "If Hart had been luckier, If we cared so much about
implicit. journalists would have Hart's affair with Rice, some
A quick historical primer: been a decade behind have asked, why did we
Hart was way ahead in where they were at this elect a president who'd
the polls to take the 1988 point," says Patterson. "But bragged on tape about
Democratic nomination Hart becomes the poster groping women? (Trump
and face GOP nominee child, the first casualty, of later called it locker room
George H.W. Bush. But an attack journalism that talk.) Did we stop caring?
rumors of marital infidelity was really a product of No, though maybe we're
arose, and a tip led Miami Watergate, and journalists' more jaded, says Patterson.
Herald reporter Tom Fiedler sense that they couldn't But we also live in a time of
to stake out an alley trust politicians." unprecedented political
near Hart's Washington Each team member polarization: "People
townhouse, where the behind "The Front Runner," increasingly filter this stuff
29-year-old Rice, with which will be in wide through their partisan
whom Hart had connected release on Nov. 21, has lens."q