blood-diamond

'Blood Diamond' Director Denies Accusation That Warner Bros. Would Use Charity For Promotional Gain

mark · 10/24/06 05:13PM

Understandably "furious" about yesterday's Page Six report on Blood Diamond's alleged "Limbs for Photo-Ops" program, in which the production was accused of having not yet made good on its promises of providing prosthetic appendages to amputees used as extras in the movie, director Ed Zwick rang up the LA Weekly's Nikki Finke to go on the record about the story, which he calls "a very cynical and appalling tack to take and in the worst taste," and "the work of someone who clearly bears the film ill will." (The diamond industry? Harvey Weinstein?) A snippet of his explanation of the shoot's charitable endeavors:

'Hollywood Accounting' Shows No Funds Left In Prosthetic Limb Budget For African Amputee Extras

mark · 10/23/06 12:28PM

Unfortunately, not every visit to Africa by the entertainment industry's goodwill ambassadors results in a Hollywood-quality happy ending like the one still being written about Madonna's selfless semi-orphan acquisition (much more on that shortly). Today's Page Six reports on Warner Bros.' promise to provide the 27 teenage and child amputees they used for atrocity-verisimilitude purposes during the filming of Blood Diamond with prosthetic limbs, a pledge that the studio apparently still hasn't fulfilled since shooting ended back in June: