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April 01, 2006
In re: Capote; the Mssrs. Shawn reply
In the April 3 New Yorker, the sons of late New Yorker editor William Shawn [not pictured], Allen and Wallace, send a letter to the editor [print only] about how their father is representated in the film, Capote, and the timing seems indicate the pair had the tact and taste to wait to comment until after, not only the Oscars, but after the first printing of DVDs had shipped. After noting that David Denby's review had described Mr. Shawn as an aggressive force who moves the plot along," freres Shawn write, "As William Shawn's sons, we would like to amplify Mr. Denby's comment by noting, for the record, that in surface detail and in substance the William Shawn episode... is invented out of whole cloth by the filmmakers." They note that "the real-life William Shawn did not believe that articles or their authors should be publicized," listing the facts that in that era the New Yorker had neither photographs (a la the Avedons in the movie) nor a table of contents, and that he never organized a reading for any writer, and in fact "he never spoke in public on any occasion." And, "Quiveringly empathic by nature, the real William Shawn was literally the last man on earth who would make a joke about the killer Perry's impending death, as the character Shawn in the film does. the real Shawn never went to Kansas to visit with Capote, and in fact he never had the experience of flying on an airplane."
Posted by pride at April 1, 2006 02:59 PM
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