'The Patriot' Comes Under Fire
JIM MORET, HOST: Hi, everyone. Laurin Sydney is off today. I'm Jim Moret in Washington, where the fate of Napster, the Internet file-sharing company, is on the line. Today, a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the future of digital music drew testimony from Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Napster CEO Hank Barry, and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. Napster is criticized for distributing copyrighted music recordings for free, but not all agree on its role when it comes to music on the Internet.</s>LARS ULRICH, METALLICA: We should decide what happens to our music, not a company with no rights on our recordings, which has never invested a penny in our music or anything to do with its creation. The choice has been taken away from us.</s>HANK BARRY, CEO, NAPSTER: Napster is helping and not hurting the recording industry and artists. A chorus of studies show that Napster users buy more records as a result of using Napster and that sampling music before buying is the most important reason that people use Napster.</s>ROGER MCGUINN, THE BYRDS: I really appreciate the transmission of MP3s over the Internet, and these songs are traditional public domain songs and I am not worried about the copyright or publishing problem. I can see how someone might be if they were not being paid their publishing rights.</s>MORET: Two free concerts sponsored by Napster may not be free of trouble. Over 1,000 fans lined up in Detroit to see the rap-rock group Limp Bizkit. The band is kicking off its Napster-sponsored "Back to Basics" tour tonight and tomorrow night with free shows in that city. Thousands more are expected to show up on the first-come, first-serve concert, hoping to get into the State Theater, which has a capacity of 3,000 people. Some security experts, however, are worried there could be safety problems if too many concert-goers show up. Meanwhile, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst has no problem headlining a Napster-sponsored tour.</s>FRED DURST, LIMP BIZKIT: Why not embrace it now, become an ally with the technology, become a pioneer of it, someone to bring it into the world and figure out a way to work with it, to use it for everybody. Maybe right now it is not working together with the industry and this, but there's a way to do it.</s>MORET: Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" may have some problems of its own brewing. The Revolutionary War film is dodging bullets about its depiction of history. Paul Vercammen takes us to the front lines of this debate.</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "The Patriot" is being attacked on several fronts over its accuracy. Spike Lee charges the film "dodged around, skirted about, or completed ignored slavery" and is "a complete whitewashing of history." (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE PATRIOT") UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I understood you to be patriot.</s>MEL GIBSON, ACTOR: If you mean by patriot, am I angry about taxation without representation? Well, yes, I am.</s>VERCAMMEN: In "The Patriot," screenwriter Robert Rodat modeled his hero, Benjamin Martin, after several Revolutionary War figures. Mel Gibson plays a back-country South Carolina farmer whose workers are free African-Americans. Rodat responding to Lee rhetorically asked if it would have been better to glorify a slave-holder and a racist. Historian Edward Lee teaches near the Brattonsville Revolutionary War site where parts of "The Patriot" were filmed. The professor says, while Gibson's character would have more likely owned slaves, he still grades "The Patriot" an A-minus or B-plus.</s>DR. EDWARD LEE, HISTORY PROFESSOR, WINTHROP UNIVERSITY: I don't think the purpose of this movie is to talk in tremendous detail about the dynamics of racial integration. And so I'd rather kind of like tell Spike Lee to pull us a little bit closer to independence and liberty.</s>VERCAMMEN: But what price is paid for freedom on film? Chairman of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in Los Angeles calls "The Patriot" an enjoyable epic, but objects to the depiction of British troops.</s>ARNOLD SCHWARTZMAN, CHAIRMAN, BAFTA: I do rather resent the fact that we are seen as bumbling fools.</s>VERCAMMEN: Jason Isaacs' portrayal of a ruthless English colonel has angered many British film-goers, including Schwartzman, who fought for Britain in the Korean War.</s>SCHWARTZMAN: It came across unreal. I mean, I can't believe he would be that quite uncaring and just shoot a child.</s>VERCAMMEN: Isaacs has an answer for critics calling "The Patriot" too long and too bloody.</s>JASON ISAACS, ACTOR: It's a shame you think that. I thought it was much too short and blood-free.</s>VERCAMMEN: Professor Lee argues the Revolutionary War was brutal on both sides.</s>LEE: These people are fighting over power and who will rule the colonies. Great Britain was in debt 137 million pounds, and they needed money.</s>VERCAMMEN: Lee adds, a controversial scene where young sons of Gibson's character shoot British soldiers, is no stretch.</s>LEE: We've got people 10 years old, 11 years old. We've got them fighting. That is a very accurate scene.</s>VERCAMMEN (on camera): Historians, critics and filmmakers can debate whether or not "The Patriot" is historically accurate. Currently, moviegoers have made it the number-three film at the domestic box office. Paul Vercammen, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.</s>MORET: Union commercial actors have been refusing work for 11 weeks now. And despite no paychecks, the actors are holding strong to their principals during their strike against advertisers. How long can they hold out and who is gaining during the strike stalemate? Dennis Michael has an update.</s>DENNIS MICHAEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The SAG and AFTRA strike against advertising agencies: week 11. The Screen Actors Guild holds a national day of action with demonstrations in 30 cities, concentrating their attention on AT&T; for using non-union actors in commercials currently in production. Predictions of a long and bitter action by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists against the advertisers have proven to be even more true than either side hoped.</s>WILLIAM DANIELS, PRESIDENT, SCREEN ACTORS GUILD: I think everybody is getting hurt. There are certain members that we have who are at great financial loss because they're very busy commercial actors. And I know that the industry is hurting.</s>IRA SHEPHARD, COUNSEL TO THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY: At some point this strike has got to be settled, and at some point we're going to have to work together. And I'm hoping that it will be sooner rather than later.</s>MICHAEL: But such hopes are still a long way from being realized. The main sticking point is and has always been the structure of payments for actors working in commercials in broadcast television and on cable. Cable spots pay actors a lump-sum buyout, and broadcast spots earn actors residuals. The advertisers want to eliminate residuals from the broadcast structure. The actors want to eliminate lump-sum payments that they call woefully low from cable and institute an industry-wide residual structure.</s>SHEPHARD: We're willing to negotiate a lucrative, positive pact with SAG and build on a long history of really solid partnership. But the current leadership seems intent on polarizing the issue.</s>DANIELS: It comes down to one percent of their commercial costs that we're arguing about. It's ridiculous. It's just ridiculous. They're just squeezing the actors, you know, the lower end, the little guys who they think can't fight back. Well, we're fighting back because this is a fair and decent cause.</s>MICHAEL: The union is accusing the advertisers of acting in bad faith in a number of ways, not only bringing in non-union actors and moving production out of Hollywood -- indeed out of the country -- but also of quietly shifting production to minor agencies who have signed interim agreements to make use of union talent without conceding to union demands. Even presidential Candidate George W. Bush managed to embroil himself in the issue when his campaign used non-union actors in campaign commercials. SAG and AFTRA claim the candidate broke a promise to seek a waiver from the union before doing so, a promise Bush's camp claims was not made. The issue inspired this recent protest in New York. Picket lines will likely continue for weeks. Federal officials are mandating that the unions and the advertisers return to the bargaining table on July 20th, but bridging the gap between the two sides appears to be a monumental task. Dennis Michael, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.