Yeah Kathy Scruggs and AJC said they only reported the truth - that Jewell was being investigated. Its based on the real-life events of the 1996 Summer Olympics and the Centennial Park bombing. She was never at peace as the story continued to get bigger and bigger with everyone crucifying Richard Jewel. As the story went through the editing process, Scruggs, Martz and Managing Editor John Walter talked about what word to use, Scruggs would say later. He was caught in 2003 when a police officer saw him behind a dumpster searching for food. "Her heart gave away. "She was so, so alive." Scruggs was born Sept. 26, 1958 into a prominent Athens family. Author Robert Coram had a front-row seat to Scruggss dealings with law enforcement in the mid '90s. She is right now the face of justice. So I had to call the district attorney, and we went through this whole back and forth and Nancy didnt end up speaking about the Olympics again.. She really always felt like they were supporting her.. The case wasnt dismissed until 2011, on the grounds that they were substantially true at the time they were published. None of the lawyers who pursued Scruggs get mentioned in the film. After Jewell was cleared, the media blamed her for making it public that Jewell was a suspect. In an interview with Collider, Gugino acknowledged that Scruggs was known for partying hard, but she was also known as a great reporter and what intrigued Gugino about the part was the notion that everything can look a certain way, depending on the point of view youre looking at it from, and that we all have a sense of what our truth is and it might be very different than somebody elses., Gugino went on to say that the scoop about Jewell basically fell in her lap and Scruggs was pressured to do it quickly, otherwise somebody else was gonna run the story, which is the nature of that profession, and she ended up in very deep.. Richard Jewell is an Academy Awards nominated film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. As Hamm told me during our interview, I really do think that the movie is an exoneration of a man who did his job and was wrongfully accused of something that he didnt do and is still thought of as something that he isnt.. She was never at peace or at rest with this story, said Scruggss former co-worker Tony Kiss. Clint Eastwood slanders reporter Kathy Scruggs in "Richard Jewell," his otherwise powerful and honest film. Amid safety concerns, and anxiety over the fate of a $200 million movie, The 2023 Hollywood Issue: Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh & More. New York, He is serving multiple life sentences for his role in several bombings. This led to him being scrutinized and ridiculed by the media before he was cleared as a suspect. Kathy was known for her solid reporting. Jewell and other men were able to clear the perimeter enough to minimize the impact. It was in 1998, and he then spent over five years on the run living and surviving in the wilderness. How this story and source was gotten was never my interest., When Brenner read the rumor about Scruggs trading sex for stories in Alexander and Salwens book, she felt it was deeply problematic: Inevitably men get it wrong when they try to write about a womans sexuality., Both Brenner and Billy Ray, though, say the focus on Scruggs is a diversionary tactic. The incident took place in Atlanta in 1996, during the Summer Olympics. Most people within the Atlanta Journal-Constitution thought that everybody would get the story at the same time, that it would essentially be a tie, Kent Alexander, co-author of The Suspect told me. When I'm not writing about pop culture, I can be found channeling Gordon Ramsay by kicking people out the kitchen. His newscasts can be seen during weekdays at 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM ET on the CBC News Network. Wilde concluded her string of Twitter posts on Thursday by saying that Scruggs "unfortunately became a piece of the massive puzzle that was responsible for the brutal and unjust vilification of. Photo: Lionsgate. She became popular in the 1990s for breaking the story that the FBI was investigating security guard Richard Jewell as a possible suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bombing. "That story might not win anyone an Oscar, but it is the truth under the evidence," Wood wrote. Tom Brokaw, who said the FBI probably had enough to convict Jewell but were just trying to collect all the evidence, does get a soundbite in the film. If there was a double standard, it was one Ron Martz complained of at the time: that Kathy Scruggs seemed to be getting all the criticism over a story on which Martz was a co-author. (Perhaps not coincidentally, The Suspect reports that Bryant teamed up with Jewells mother to sell the movie rights.) Related: Eirianedd Munro (Adam Peaty Girlfriend) Bio, Age, Height, Family, Boyfriend, Son, Artist, Job, Net Worth. Eric Rudolph eventually admitted to the bombing and other attacks and pleaded guilty. I keep thinking, Im not going to go watch it, but then the cast is so damn good and this story is a good story, said King. Former AJC reporter Ron Martz, who reported on the bombing along with Scruggs, said, She was one of the better reporters I ever worked with. Eric Rudolph, an American domestic terrorist, was later found to have been responsible for setting off the bomb, which killed one person and injured 111 other people at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta in July 1996. Read More Ashley Willcott Court Tv Husband, Age, Height, Salary, Net WorthContinue. ", He went on to say that Scruggs was "one of the better reporters I ever worked with.". Based on the Vanity Fair article, the film follows the facts told in it pretty closely. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. She was just 42 when she died in 2001. The media circus that surrounded the investigation was widely cited as an example of law enforcement and media excess. 111 people were still injured, and two people died: Alice Hawthorne and Melih Uzunyol, a Turkish cameraman who had a heart attack while trying to cover the event. Here's our special offer. After 88 days of public scrutiny, he was cleared as a suspect. The bomb detonated before it could be removed, killing. People who knew her called her a true journalist. Columnist Hollis Gillespie went on a date with Jewell after meeting him on an airplane, only to write up the whole thing in Atlanta Magazine, along with a follow-up piece in which she appeared on the cover. As for the bar scene, Kent Alexander and his co-author Kevin Salwen have declined to discuss their input, saying in a statement, We have been asked repeatedly whether we found evidence that Scruggs traded sex for the story. In a letter sentthis week to Eastwood, screenwriter Billy Ray, Warner Brothers and others, the AJC is demanding a "prominent disclaimer" be added to the film to acknowledge that some of the events portrayed in itwere "imagined for dramatic purposes, and artistic license and dramatization were used in the films portrayal of events and characters," the AJC reported. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). Kiss, who worked with Scruggs in Anderson and then later at the Asheville Citizen-Times in western North Carolina, is livid about the film's portrayal of his co-worker and one of his dearest friends. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. Manhunt: Deadly Games airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. She had this big personality the kind you never forget.". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution then read the full text of the story to an FBI spokesperson before publication specifically to avoid jeopardizing the investigation. Even highly respected journalists like Katie Couric tracked Jewell down when he canceled an interview with her. ', there is no evidence that Scruggs slept with anyone. Scruggs had discovered that Richard Jewell, the security guard who had evacuated the area before the bomb exploded, saving dozens of lives in the process, was a suspect in the attack. To say that Kathy Scruggs had sex with an FBI agent (or at the very least fondled his crotch) to get the Jewell scoop when theres no evidence of that is defamatory enough, and that has nothing to do with sexism or double standards. Someone saw him running from the scene and took down his license. In the end, Kathy Scruggs greatest crime was being interesting. In a thread on Twitter on Thursday night, Lin Wood, the prominent defamation lawyer who represented Jewell in lawsuits against The Journal-Constitution and other media organizations, joined the movie's critics. "Kathy Scruggs was the one who broke the story about Richard Jewell," said Lyda Longa, who was a police reporter for the newspaper during the 1996 games. Kathy Scruggs, the AJC, and other media had no qualms about. Scruggs left the Independent Mail in Anderson after she got into an altercation at a bar, Kiss said. The film flashes six years later and Bryant informs Richard Jewell that the FBI has finally got the real bomber: Eric Rudolph. Scruggs, who died in 2001, was working at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when she broke a story that the FBI was investigating security guard Richard Jewell for the bombing in Centennial. Early buzz for Clint Eastwoods latest film indicates that both Paul Walter Hauser and Sam Rockwell have a fighting chance. Warner Brothers has fired back at the AJC, saying that having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, [the AJC] is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast., Olivia Wilde, who plays Scruggs in the film, defended the films depiction of her character on feminist grounds, saying the films critics were holding it to a sexist double standard., She was incredibly successful as a cop reporter. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, She was really tough and hard-nosed. Through social media posts, court records, and other primary sources, author Kathleen Hale forensically reconstructs their lives before the crime, and the night they were killed. They editorialized wildly and printed assumptions as facts. "There was NO evidence to support a storyline" that Kathy Scruggs traded sex for tips about Richard Jewell, his attorney tweeted. Within days, the law enforcement wannabe becomes the FBIs number one suspect, vilified by press and public alike, his life ripped apart, a Warner Brothers press release obtained by Oxygen.com states. In the movie, Richard is kind of portrayed like a bit of an outcast, mama's boy simpleton, but in real life, the article said he had an active social life, a complicated but loving relationship with his mother, and he was quite observant and smart. She hated being lied to or used. She'd launch into a story maybesomething about the person she had just run into,the interview she had just finished. It was Scruggs who first publicly. The real bad guy turned out to be someone else, caught 7 years after the bombing. While others were under suspicion, Martz at least thought Jewell was the lead suspect. Read More Who is Will Cain Married To? With The Good Doctor Losing A Character, How Worried Should Fans Be For The Season 6 Finale? Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Getty Wilde seems to infer that Richard Jewells critics are basing their criticisms of the Kathy Scruggs character solely on the idea that the movie infers that Scruggs had sex with a source for a story (true, the film doesnt show the actual penis going in, but when two people say theyre going to have sex and leave for a hotel room its not much of a leap to assume that they did). Or at least, one FBI agent in particular fed her the story. It feels unfair that Kathy has been minimized in this way. [] Its a misunderstanding of feminism to assume that all women have to be sexless.. The police caught on to Rudolph when he did a bombing in Birmingham. According to one of Scruggs' bosses, assistant managing editor for Olympics Thomas M. Oliver, the source told Scruggs that Jewell fit a patternOliver did not recall whether the word used was a "profile"of a wannabe cop with troubled experience in law enforcement. Whereas Scruggs important job, local police reporter, is increasingly an anachronism, we still seem to have plenty of Brokaws, Kindreds, and Graces to go around (admittedly fewer Hollis Gillespies). In the 2019 Clint Eastwood film about the bombing, Scruggs was portrayed as having slept with sources for scoops, something the people who knew her took great umbrage with. As well be discussing the plot of Richard Jewell, expect spoilers. Kathleen Kathy Scruggs was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who broke the story that the FBI was investigating security guard Richard Jewell as a possible suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bombing. Should they call Jewell a "suspect," "focus" or "target?" Fair enough, and certainly Jewell deserves that, but Jewell already received the benefit of being exonerated during his lifetime. The newspaper, in a letter to the filmmakers, has criticized the depiction of the reporter, indicating that there is no evidence to suggest this actually happened. She was never at peace as the story continued to get bigger and bigger with everyone crucifying Richard Jewel. By discovering the device and swiftly reporting it, Jewell helped ensurethe area was able to be cleared enough to avoid mass casualties, although two people still died and 111 were injured when it exploded. The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. But ever since the film premiered at the AFI Fest in November, the Atlanta Journal-Constitutions editor-in-chief, Kevin Riley, has insisted that the filmwritten by Oscar-winning screenwriter Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)gets integral facts wrong. "She was upset, and she sort ofimplied tothe bar owner she could put him in the newspaper," Kiss said. Now a movie comes along 23 years later, a perfect chance for the AJC to atone for what they did to Richard and to admit to their misdeeds. Scruggs died in 2001 of a morphine overdose. He appeared on the 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list all five years, and there was a million-dollar reward offered for any info. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The suit was dismissed in 2011 when the Georgia Court of Appeals concluded the articles in their entirety were substantially true at the time they were published. But Scruggs was not alive to see her name cleared, and friends told the AJC that stress related to the case exacerbated her failing health. "She would announce herself. The reporters outside his home would even yell and harass Bobi and Richard to try to get a reaction to catch on film. She had a very close relationship with the cops and the FBI helping to tell their story, and yes, by all accounts she had relationships with different people in that field, Wilde told Deadline. She was charming and kind, generous and profane, according to Tony Kiss, a former colleague at the newspaper in Anderson, South Carolina, who became her longtimefriend. The man, Richard Jewell, went from being hailed a hero to the most hated villain when Kathy Scruggs, a journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, broke the news about Jewell being looked at as the main suspect by the FBI. If you wanted to draw a Hollywood stereotype of a hard-charging female cops reporter, Kathy would fit that bill pretty well, King said during a phone call with Vanity Fair on Wednesday. The Vanity Fair article only briefly discusses Scruggs, and calls her an FBI "groupie. It also mentions her being kind of a tough journalist, but never demonizes her in the way the film does. Why is that anyones business? Brenner told Vanity Fair. Her heart gave away. It starts with them in a conference room conducting an interrogation of Jewell. By the time the case ended, Richard & Ms. Scruggs had both passed away. However, the film was criticized for its portrayal of a real-life reporter, Kathy Scruggs. She was also known for a foul mouth, low-cut dresses, and general wildness. "The perspective of the fictional dramatization of the story, as I understood it, was that Kathy, and the FBI agent who leaked false information to her, were in a pre-existing romantic relationship, not a transactional exchange of sex for information," Wilde continued. In the 1990s, Scruggs was known for her solid reporting, her tight relationship with local law enforcement, and also her hard-partying ways, something that was exacerbated after she set off the media firestorm directed at Jewell. According to them, he fit the profile of a lone bomber. The most electric character in Clint Eastwoods new film, [Richard Jewell] (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/12/richard-jewell-warner-bros-legal-letter)and now the most controversialis Kathy Scruggs, the hard-charging, real-life Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist played by Olivia Wilde. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Scruggs isnt alive to defend herself, but Richard Jewells depiction of her had Scruggs colleagues at the AJC calling foul before theyd even seen the film. In December 2019, a biographical drama film Richard Jewel was released portraying the real life of Jewell. In 2020, Manhunt: Deadly Gameswas released following the hunt for Eric Rudolph, who was the perpetrator of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing after suspicion initially fell on security guard Richard Jewell. 'Manhunt Deadly Games,' an American true-crime drama, will premiere its second season in the year 2020. The FBI Confirms Its Brett Kavanaugh Investigation Was a Total Sham. She was so empty.. Carla Gugino plays her in Manhunt: Deadly Games on CBS. Later, movie-Scruggs is moved to tears at a Jewell press conference, apparently humbled by the Jewells plight and ashamed at her own actions the movies way of showing that Scruggs had learned a lesson about being so aggressive (uppity?). Please consider becominga subscriber. His motives were because he was against abortion and didnt want homosexuality normalized. When she went after a story she did what was necessary to get the story, within legal and ethical bounds., Her friend Susan Parke called her luminous, adding she was so, so alive. READ NEXT: New Reality Star Lost Her Son to a Drug Overdose in 2009, The Sad End to Atlanta Bombing Reporter Kathy Scruggs Life, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. It was just hard living," her brother told the AJC. Such a portrayal makes it appear that the AJC sexually exploited its staff and/or that it facilitated or condoned offering sexual gratification to sources in exchange for stories. I come from a long line of journalists my moms been a journalist for 35 years theres no way I would want to suggest that.". The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the Jewell case against the AJC in 2011. They deflect and distortopting to challenge one assertion in the movie rather than accepting their own role in destroying the life of a good man. Initially hailed as a hero by the media, Jewell was quickly identified as a suspect by the FBI and local law enforcement based on psychological profiling. He really didnt know. For our 29th annual Hollywood cover, a dozen captivating young stars gather for the after-party of our dreams. Support stories like this by supporting local journalism. "Kathy was just luminous," Parke said. (This post will contain both spoilers for the movie Richard Jewell and historical facts. She was at least doing the job as it was understood; he was the unscrupulous one. I have been a life long lover of pop culture, especially television, turned that passion into writing about all things entertainment related. Her friends always believed stress over that story contributed to her failing health. The (Journal-Constitution's) claims are baseless and we will vigorously defend . Despite the fact that he was never charged, Jewell was subjected to a trial by media, which had a negative impact on both his personal and professional life. Richard Jewell, an American security guard and a police officer got entangled in a web of investigation and media trial after he became a suspect in the investigation. At the time, the coroner said it could not be determined if the overdose was suicidal or accidental. Shestruggled with chronic health issues and had been on medical leavefrom the newspaper for about a year when she died, Kiss said. It haunted her until her last breath, her former colleague Tony Kiss told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a 2019 feature about her. He received a public apology from Jay Leno, a $200,000 settlement from CNN, and an almost $600,000 settlement from NBC, among others. ), Fact Vs. Fiction In Richard Jewell: A Look At Why Kathy Scruggs Deserved Better, The Best Coachella 2023 Performances Were Reflections Of Pure Joy, My (Non-Anonymous) Ballot For The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, HBOs White House Plumbers Delivers An Absurd Historical Snapshot And A Knockout Performance From Justin Theroux, The Rundown: Ted Lasso Has Created A Delightful Little I Think You Should Leave Conundrum, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.