Schwarzenegger Film Burns Firefighters
Warner Brothers is scrambling to soothe New York police and firefighters, who are upset over a screening of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new action flick "Collateral Damage."
A publicity blurb put out by the movie studio seemed to claim the film had been endorsed by a Sept. 11 victims fund founded by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Firefighters decried that as capitalizing on a tragedy.
In an initial press release promoting the screening, Warner Bros. said Giuliani would appear "in association with the Twin Towers Fund and Twin Towers Board." Giuliani set up the fund last year for the families of firefighters and police lost in the attacks.
"It saddens us any time a tragedy is used to promote anything like a movie," said Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.
Giuliani attended an advanced showing of the movie on Wednesday, but Warner Brothers now says he was there as a guest, not an endorser.
"Let's see the movie before criticizing it," Giuliani said outside the Ziegfield Theatre in Manhattan, where he attended the advance showing with former fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen.
At Wednesday's screening, Giuliani said Schwarzenegger had personally donated $1 million and helped raise an additional $4 million for families of rescue officials killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"I'm very supportive of Arnold Schwarzenegger," the former mayor said.
In the movie, "Collateral Damage," Schwarzenegger plays a Los Angeles firefighter who seeks vengeance against Colombian terrorists who killed his family.
Cops and firefighters aren't the only people unhappy with the film.
Colombian activists are seeking a disclaimer saying the film is strictly fictional and doesn't intend to denigrate Colombians.
On NBC's "Today" show, Schwarzenegger defended the movie's portrayal of Colombians.
"This is a story about what America is doing to Colombia, and what Colombians, a few Colombian terrorists, are doing to America and what damage does it cause," he said.
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