— ^,ossi.OR favorite filmmaker, planned by Jodie Foster's Egg Pictures, which is housed on the studio's lot. Oscar-winner Foster is hoping to produce and star in the as-yet-unnamed movie, now being scripted by Philadelphia scribe Ron Nyswaner. Nancy Kirkpatrick, Paramount's execu- tive vice president of worldwide publici- ty, and Tim Webber, manager of corpo- rate publicity, informed the milers the studio has nothing to do with the film. "Paramount is renting space to Ms. Foster, and she is doing her film here, but ifs not a Paramount picture," Webber said. The movie is already drawing criti- cism from members of the Jewish community, but Foster has insisted that the German filmmaker needs to be portrayed. "Leni Riefenstahl's story is something I have been dying to do for a long time," she said in a written statement. "I see it as the acting challenge of a life- time. There is no other woman in the 20th century who has been so admired and so vilified simultaneously. She was perhaps one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and yet her name and her work will forever be linked to the hor- ror of Nazi Germany." Foster told the London Telegraph, as reported in The Forward, that Riefenstahl was "a tremendously gifted woman" who "made a lot of ugly choices at a terrible and horrible time in history." She has said that she has met with Riefenstahl and regards her life as "a moral tale for us all. She is an extraordinary woman, sharp as a tack and as beautiful as she ever was, with a tremendous body." Now 98, Riefenstahl was born Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl in- Berlin and first aspired to become a dancer. Switching to film, she starred in and co-directed several exquisitely shot German "mountain" films and fell in with the Nazis. She remains best known for her bril- liant Third Reich propaganda films: Her documentary Olympia, shot dur- ing the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, earned her a spot on Time magazine's cover and is considered one of the best sports documentaries ever made. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels himself awarded Riefenstahl the German-National Film Prize for Triumph of the Will, which depicts Hitler as god-like and is widely credit- ed for selling National Socialism to the masses. Goebbels lauded Riefenstahl's womanly charms in his diaries. The filmmaker, who has insisted "I was not a Nazi, I was an artist," was, • • • • • • Gourmet Food Baskets Fruit Baskets Candy and Nut Trays Novelty Item_ s Pastries Dried Fruit We Will Also Help You Create Your Own Custom Basket or Tray Corporate Accounts Welcomed Actress/director _Jodie Foster is planning a film on Hitler's favorite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, pictured (248) 737-$088 Fax: (248) 737-3869 www.877gifts.com Toll Free: 1-877-011-1S-88 according to the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, interned by the Allies for three years after World War II but later cleared of any wrongdoing. While she never made any other movies, she's published well-received books of photography on undersea life and Sudanese tribesmen in recent decades. At the age of 97, she survived a helicopter crash in the Sudan that left her with broken ribs. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, as reported in The Forward, Riefenstahl insists that she was naive about Hitler, that she's "ashamed" she didn't notice the persecution of the Jews, and that she never wanted to make Triumph of the Will. "And I say [to Hitler], 'No, no, no, no,"' she recounts. "And he says, `Please, Leni, one film, one film of the rally in Nuremberg.' And journalists and people say that I have made the film because I am ambitious." Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center believes just that. He cites the archival photographs he's seen of Riefenstahl with Hitler: "She looks infatuated with him," he asserts. "She's basking in the glory and the attention." Hier is concerned about Foster's per- ceived admiration for the filmmaker. "If you start on that basis, it's hard to be truthful about her during the Hitler years," he explains. "Anybody doing a film on Leni Riefenstahl needs to show that she was infatuated with the Fuhrer and was his chief propagandist. "To have assisted a person responsi- ble for the greatest genocide in human history and to have been at his arm is not very complimentary." ❑ — Naomi Pfifferman, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles 32418 Northwestern Hwy. Between Middlebelt and 14 Mile Roads - -ftitatt* Michael and Ray Abrams GREAT FOOD Invite You To Enjoy Our See and lade Why Everyone Is Talking About Our ►Succulent Lamb Chops Delicious Trout or Salmon ► Juicy Porterhouse Steak Luscious London Broil ►Tasty Amareffo Chicken Yummy Chicken Greek Pasta and so much more! ► ► ► i i i clife e's We Take High Pride In Our - Kitchen! 1 1 Resiaucriani Lounge See The Nomads Sat., Dec. 2, 9 p.m. SUNDAYS AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES CALL MICHAEL OR RICHELLE i i C 23380 TELEGRAPH, BETWEEN 9 AND 10 MILE • Smithfield (248) 352-8243 j REMBRANDT IS AT MARVIN'S TO SKETCH YOUR PICTURE! 4 Quarters Free! With This Ad WI I Coupon Per Person .t aszolialICAL Uszuff Mon.-Sat. 10-11 Sun II-11 13 ARITEZ0a. ■ 3 1005 ORCHARD LAKE RD. BEHIND F&M, SOUTH OF 14 MILE • 626-5020 CPR can keep your love alive Free quarters for use only on games at Marvin's - American Heart Associations. Fighting Heart Disease and Stroke Expires 1/30/00 tTN 11/24 2000 93