Two of the biggest players in Hollywood have clashed over the issue of relations with Cuba, in a dispute that has highlighted President Bush’s campaign against Fidel Castro.
The actor Robert Duvall has said that he will never make another film for Steven Spielberg’s company, DreamWorks, because the director recently visited Cuba and met Castro. Spielberg has said that Duvall has misquoted him.
Spielberg, one of the world’s most successful directors and a partner in DreamWorks, recently attended a festival of his films in Havana. He also visited the Holocaust memorial in Havana.
Duvall, who appeared in the first two Godfather films, Apocalypse Now, Falling Down and most recently Open Range, told CBS’s 60 Minutes II programme that the visit should never have taken place.
”Now, what I want to ask him — and I know he’s going to get pissed off: Would you consider building a little annex on the Holocaust museum, or at least across the street, to honour the dead Cubans that Castro killed?” said Duvall in the interview.
”That’s very presumptuous of him to go there. I’ll tell him that. I’ll never work at Dreamworks again, but I don’t care about working there anyway.”
Spielberg issued his response on Thursday. A spokesperson said in a statement that the trip to Cuba was authorised by the US government as part of a cultural exchange programme.
”His trip to Cuba in 2002 was cultural, not political,” said the statement. ”It was an opportunity to share his films and his values with the Cuban people. In addition to screening eight of his films for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, he visited with the Jewish community, paid his respects at the Holocaust memorial in Havana, and met with US diplomats stationed there.”
The spokesperson also said Duvall had misquoted Spielberg.
Duvall starred in Deep Impact, a 1998 disaster movie about an asteroid headed for earth which was co-produced by DreamWorks. The 73-year-old actor lives mainly in Argentina.
Spielberg is one of many leading American actors and directors who have attended film events in Havana over the years. The Bush administration bans Americans from visiting Cuba without special permission, such as was granted to Spielberg, as part of a trade embargo of the island.
Bush recently announced a toughening of the restrictions, which are popular with Cuban-Americans in Florida, a state which is vital to his presidential ambitions. – Guardian Unlimited Â