The chief spokesman for the FBI tells USA Today that he did not try to shape the outcome of the upcoming movie on J. Edgar Hoover, which is supposed to portray the legendary director as being gay. The film is set to be released next month.
Spokesman Mike Kortan, an assistant FBI director, told USA Today that he met separately with director Clint Eastwood and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Hoover, who both solicited information about Hoover’s sexuality.
Kortan told them there were “vague rumors and fabrications have cropped up from time to time, but there is no evidence in the historical record on this issue.”
“We provided information so that their story could be accurate,” Kortan said. “What they did with it, as with any production, has been entirely in their hands.”
Some agents, but more so, ex-agents of the Hoover era have voiced displeasure about the film that reportedly depicts Hoover as having a sexual relationship with his right hand man Clyde Tolson.
“There is no basis in fact for such a portrayal of Mr. Hoover,” William Branon, chairman of The J. Edgar Hoover Foundation, wrote to Eastwood this year, according to USA Today. “It would be a grave injustice and monumental distortion to proceed with such a depiction based on a completely unfounded and spurious assertion.”
The Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI fired off a similar missive, saying a “rumored kissing scene,” reported in early media accounts involving the actors portraying Hoover and Tolson, “caused us to reassess our tacit approval of your film.”
William Baker, a former agent and Hoover foundation vice president, told USA Today:
“We’re caught in a dilemma here. We don’t want to support something not based in fact, but we’re not against the new FBI and diverse workplace.”
Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, a former top aide to the FBI director, said he discussed the matter with DiCaprio, according to the paper.
“When the subject of homosexuality came up, I made it very clear that I never saw any evidence of it whatsoever. said DeLoach, 91, Hoover’s deputy director for more than five years. “I traveled with him, I ate in his home and he in mine. I knew Clyde Tolson to be Mr. Hoover’s companion and best friend. When you are somebody like Mr. Hoover, I guess you need somebody to talk to.”
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