Kerry Washington has received the best reviews of her career for playing Anita Hill in “Confirmation,” but friends of Clarence Thomas are saying HBO’s new political biopic was a hatchet job.
“Confirmation,” which aired Saturday, retold the story of the contentious 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in which Hill accused the future Supreme Court Justice of sexual harassment.
Wendell Pierce, from “The Wire,” played Thomas, but it was “Scandal” actress Washington who received critical raves. USA Today said she delivers “what may be her best work yet,” while the New York Times called her “impressive.”
But in his first interview since seeing the film, former White House lawyer Mark Paoletta, who was part of Thomas’s legal team that ensured his Supreme Court nomination, said the finished movie was even more skewed against Republicans than the script, which he had previously been sent and been highly critical of.
“It was a dishonest film,” said Paoletta, who is so upset by HBO’s selectivity that he has set up his own website Confirmation Biased. “It’s a hit job on Justice Thomas, and they accomplished this by selectively telling the story to make Anita Hill look more credible than she truly was.”
HBO amended the script to appease Republicans such as former Senators Alan Simpson and Jack Danforth, as well as Paoletta, who had complained about the depictions of their real-life roles in ensuring Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation. Now Paoletta says the cable network subsequently edited the film to paint Hill in an even more sympathetic light.
A line that was in the script describing Hill as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty,” coined by David Brock in his critical book “The Real Anita Hill,” was cut from the film. (Brock later recanted his enmity towards Hill and now runs Hillary Clinton’s Super PAC Correct the Record.)
A scripted exchange between staffers of then-Senator Joe Biden and Senator Edward Kennedy, justifying their bosses’ stance towards Hill, was also cut from the movie. (Vice President Biden, then the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Kennedy were among those who tried to block Thomas’ confirmation during the hearings.)
Paoletta said that Hill’s contradictory testimony, the changing nature of her statement and her initial refusal to be interviewed by the FBI were not chronicled in “Confirmation.”
He was also unimpressed with Pierce’s depiction of Clarence Thomas in the movie: “Clarence Thomas was made out to be much more calculating than he actually was. Wendell Pierce didn’t capture how angry and outraged Thomas was as this circus was playing out.”
#AnitaHill first tried to lodge an anonymous complaint against Clarence Thomas – that is not in #confirmationmovie
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) April 8, 2016
He added that Clarence Thomas himself did not see the film: “I’m certain Clarence Thomas didn’t watch it because of the kind of the person he is. He is doing an incredible job as a strong justice defending the constitution. I don’t think he’ll even think about it.”
Paoletta himself was taken out as a character in the film by HBO after he threatened to sue the network and his name was changed to Chris Leventhal. Asked if he recognized himself in the film, he said: “Absolutely not. I didn’t say the things in the film and the scenes are fabricated. I wasn’t in those meetings in those rooms with those people.
“If you want to make a timely movie about sexual harassment and gender politics, you could do well with a film about the Clintons. Given Hillary is running for President, I’m sure that would get huge viewership.”
Allies of Clarence Thomas are also suspicious of “Confirmation” star and executive producer Washington’s public support for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign and the fact that many members of the creative team have previously donated money to the Democrats.
In an earlier statement HBO defended “Confirmation,” stating: “As with all of our historical dramas, we took enormous time in researching and vetting the production. Many of those in the film, and from all facets of the story, were a part of the script.”
But there is one thing Paoletta did like about “Confirmation”: “It was good to see archive footage of Tim Russert!”
