ANNETTE BENING - HOLLYWOOD GOES TO IRAN

HOLLYWOOD GOES TO IRAN

A group of Hollywood figures that included actress Annette Bening, director Phil Robinson, motion picture academy Sid Gannis, producer William Horberg and former Universal Pictures Chairman Tom Pollock, saw two faces of the Iranian regime after arriving in the country on a cultural visit on Friday. Even as they participated in a three-hour meeting with Iranian film officials at the Iranian House of Cinema in Tehran where, according to the Tehran Times , they held "talks on bilateral cooperation" their visit was being attacked by Javad Shamghadri, cultural adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "The Iranian people and our revolution have been repeatedly unjustly attacked by Hollywood. We will believe Obama's policy of change when we see change in Hollywood too, and if Hollywood wants to correct its behavior towards Iranian people and Islamic culture then they have to officially apologize," he said. Two years ago, Shamghadri attacked the movie 300 as part of a plot by "Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. ... to figure out how to attack Iranian culture."

02/03/2009