Frost/Nixon Preview & Riellegate Update

August 21, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Entertainment, News media, Nixon in the News, Richard Nixon, U.S. History 

Gawker today links to a clip it says is from Youtube, though the clip, at this point, cannot be located on Youtube itself.  It is no less than the trailer of Ron Howard’s movie Frost/Nixon, starring Frank Langella reprising his acclaimed Broadway performance as President Nixon, and not scheduled to open until December.  (The trailer first appeared on a Danish site and has subtitles in that language, though the soundtrack is in English.)  I was able, using the Gawker link, to play two-thirds of the trailer before it cut off; when I tried to reload the clip it wouldn’t play.  But if you can get it to work, it’s well worth seeing. 

Meanwhile, the most interesting aspect of the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair continues to be the money aspect – though TMZ.com did locate a few amusing seconds of Hunter bantering with Chuck Woolery as a contestant on the game show Lingo in 2002.  Death By 1000 Paper Cuts, the most determined blog investigating the story, today notes that a journalist working for PBS Radio in North Carolina is examining the curious story of the extensive use by the Edwards campaign of an airplane registered to the law firm founded by the campaign’s finance chairman, tort lawyer Fred Baron, but controlled (to use his own term) by Baron.  (Here it should be noted that the firm had acrimoniously terminated its connection with Baron several years before the Edwards campaign started using the plane.)  

Most finance chairpersons of presidential campaigns work gratis; Baron, however, was very handsomely compensated by the Edwards campaign.  The Death By 1000 Paper Cuts post notes a number of occasions when substantial payments were made to Baron by the Edwards organization for the use of “his” plane, which just happened to coincide with significant dates in the timeline of the Edwards/Hunter saga. 

I’ll point out once again that, when it comes to coincidences, I’m still intrigued by the fact that the Center For Promise And Opportunity, the well-funded nonprofit foundation set up by Edwards ostensibly to fund a mammoth scholarship program for poor students across the nation, abruptly went out of business (along with the scholarships it sponsored at the single high school where it manifested concrete results) a week or so before Rielle Hunter fled to St. Croix (a place with easy air access to various discreet financial institutions) and the former vice-presidential nominee went on ABC to confess his “liason.” Whither went its assets?

And (as Frank Gannon writes below) according to Radar magazine’s site, the New York Times is now looking into Edwards’ involvement with a so-far-unnamed person who apparently has some connection to Duke University.  (But when will we hear from the Washington Post?)

Update: the blog of the Dallas Morning News reports that although John Edwards seems to be skipping the Democratic convention next week, Fred Baron will continue his 20-year tradition of attending it.  The post also quotes an Obama campaign source as denying that Baron is involved with planning events for the campaign in Colorado, as had been previously reported.

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