Oliver Stone – sporting a suspiciously tight-cropped mustache – sparked a controversy after comments he made in the Sunday Times of London were blasted as anti-Semetic and kind of crazy. The director, who was promoting his documentary South of the Border about South American politics, referred to the “Jewish domination of the media” and argued that Israel had “fucked up United States foreign policy for years.” He went on to explain Hitler, sort of:
“Hitler was a Frankenstein, but there was also a Dr. Frankenstein,” he said. “German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support. Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people.”
The American Jewish Committee has already lashed out with a release calling Stone an “anti-Semite,” and Stone has responded with a statement of his own in which he apologizes for his “clumsy association about the Holocaust” and writes that he is aware “Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry.” Meanwhile, Mel Gibson is no doubt sending flowers to Stone tonight in thanks for giving him a day off.
Oliver Stone Controversy [Media Decoder/NYT]
