Can a Biopic of Arafat Be Far Behind?

Welcome to readers from Haveil Havalim #56 compiled this week by Modern Orthodox Woman. Feel free to go to the top and take a look around.

The New York Sun is reporting ("U.N. Opens Its Doors to Hollywood Che Biopic") on the uniting of the UN and Hollywood:

The United Nations' decision to open its doors for a Hollywood biopic about a Cuban mass murderer, Ernesto "Che" Guevara," has drawn fire from opponents of the Castro regime who say the world body should be "embarrassed" for helping whitewash the communist assassin's history.

..."Che" is only the second movie to have been filmed on the premises of the United Nations, which, prior to last year's "The Interpreter," had kept its Turtle Bay compound closed to Hollywood. According to the U.N. undersecretary general for communications and public information, Shashi Tharoor, "Che" filming was greenlighted by Secretary-General Annan and the president of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson. The U.N. footage will be used to depict Guevara's 1964 speech before the world body.

The article continues:

"It's a real shame that the United Nations will be a party to the glamorizing of Che Guevara," the Cuban-born director of the Free Society Project, Maria Werlau, told The New York Sun yesterday. "Che stood for the opposite of what the U.N. charter upholds. He was a ruthless and cold-blooded mass murderer whose warped sense of 'justice' led to the firing squad executions of scores of dissenters, without minimal due process."

...Most of the world, the Miami-based Mr. Castano said, does not know about the real Guevara, and wants to believe the idealized version of his life peddled by Hollywood, which sells him as a "revolutionary hero."

Kind of makes you wonder whether Guevera and Arafat were separated at birth.

The UN and Mr. Annan are also consistent in their absolute cluelessness of the disconnect between what they are doing and what they claim they think they are accomplishing:

Mr. Tharoor said yesterday in an email that Mr. Annan gave the go-ahead to the project because "We felt that it was in the U.N.'s interest for the depiction of this event to be filmed here, reminding viewers of the historic role of the organization as a forum for dialogue at the height of the Cold War and further familiarizing the movie going public with the U.N. The decision to approve the request was in keeping with the SG's well-established policy of making the organization more accessible to the general public."

With the groundwork firmly established, how long will it be before we see a glowing biography of Arafat filmed at the UN as well.

Technorati Tag: Arafat and Che and UN.