Los Angeles (AFP)

An Atlanta newspaper on Thursday denounced the "shocking" and "fake" portrait of one of its editors brushed by Clint Eastwood in his latest film, "Richard Jewell", who insinuates that she slept with a police officer in exchange for information.

Based on a true story, "The Case of Richard Jewell" tells the story of this former policeman, first celebrated as a hero for finding the explosive device backpack in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics The explosion had killed two people and injured more than a hundred.

Even if his alert had made it possible to shelter hundreds of people, Richard Jewell, 33 years old at the time, had very quickly been presented as a suspect by the media, in an unflattering light, without him never arrested or indicted.

Kathy Scruggs, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), was among the journalists who quickly established that Richard Jewell was considered a "suspect" by the FBI (Federal Police), who had finally cleared him three months later. .

In "The Richard Jewell Case", Kathy Scruggs, played by actress Olivia Wilde, is shown proposing sexual intercourse with an FBI agent in exchange for the suspect's identity, which her journal formally denied and his colleagues at the time.

Ms. Scruggs passed away in 2001.

"The portrait of our reporter is shocking, false" and was invented by Hollywood, told AFP Kevin Riley, editor of the AJC. "The film commits exactly the sin with which it accuses the media: it invents facts from scratch," he accuses.

Cox Enterprises, owner of the Atlanta newspaper, sent a letter Monday to ask Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros. Studios to publicly declare that "certain events have been imagined for artistic purposes."

The letter deplores the fact that the newspaper and its employees are "portrayed in an inaccurate and defamatory manner" and requests that a clear warning be added to the film to this effect.

In its current version, the film released Friday in the United States is content to specify, at the very end of the credits, that it is "based on real historical events" but has created certain dialogues and elements for the needs of the world. 'history.

The film is based "on a large amount of highly credible material elements" and "the allegations of the AJC are unfounded", warned Warner Bros. in his response to the letter.

Richard Jewell had sued many defamation media, including the AJC. A court acknowledged that the newspaper's information about the attack and the investigation was accurate at the time of publication.

Richard Jewell died in 2007 at the age of 44 from heart problems related to diabetes.

The real culprit, Eric Rudolph, was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison two years later.

© 2019 AFP