At The Movies Telling The Truth "Shattered Glass" provides an accurate account of what went wrong with a very talented — but very flawed — journalist. NAOMI PFEFFERMAN Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles I n spring 1999, filmmaker Billy Ray asked Charles Lane to retrace one of the strangest treks in modern journalism. In May 1998, Lane — then editor of The New Republic — had made the same trip with Stephen Glass, a young rising star at the magazine. At 25, the Jewish Glass was drawing attention with juicy stories such as the "First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ." But Lane had begun to worry that the writer's outrageously colorful pieces were too good to be true. The day before, a reporter from Forbes.com, the online edition of the well-known business magazine, had phoned about irregularities in Glass' May 1998 story "Hack Heaven," set at a computer hackers' convention. Forbes Adam. Penenberg and his edi- tor had interrogated Glass about the fishy materials he had provided to back up the story, including a fake-looking Web site. The solicitous, self-effacing Glass had finally said he might have been duped by his sources. But Lane had a different suspicion. On that day in 1998, he insisted the writer drive him from The New Republic's Washington, D.C., office to the Bethesda, Md., site of the hackers' conference. Glass drove slowly and appeared to be improvising as he led Lane to a horseshoe-shaped lobby in a nonde- script office building, an unlikely set- ting for a convention. Lane questioned building personnel — and learned the facility had been closed the day of the alleged event. An ensuing investigation revealed that Glass had partially or totally made up at least 27 out of his 41 New Republic pieces, including "Hack Heaven." He had fooled fact-checkers with bogus items such as faux notes and voicemails. Five years before Jayson Blair, he emerged as one of the most extravagant frauds in journalism history. No wonder Ray took extra care while turning the debacle into a film, Shattered Glass, a more intimate riff on the journalism thriller epitomized by . All the President's Men. Although the taut drama is officially based on a Vanity Fair expose, Ray con- ducted his own interviews, culled dia- logue from transcripts and even asked Lane to re-create the Bethesda trip. "I insisted that we drive at the same speed, in the same lane, park where they parked and walk where they walked," he said. He also studied materials provided by Penenberg, whose meticulous fact- checking first exposed Glass. "Billy approached this project as a journalist would," Penenberg said. Seeking Approval Stephen Glass reacts to "Shattered Glass. 1.7 home. "And like a horror film, I could- I was fired in 1998 from my job as a n't watch whole chunks of the movie; writer at "The New Republic" and dis- I'd stare at the ground." missedfrom several freelance assignments While the drama "gets things right in for having fabricated dozens of magazine very many ways," Glass said, it neglects articles. I deeply regret my misconduct, to describe why he fabricated: his des- and the pain it caused — author's note from Stephen Glass' "The perate need for approval. "I would invent a story or invent an Fabulist" aspect of a story ... and then I would see that people liked my story, and I hen disgraced journalist would confuse that with their liking Stephen Glass saw Shattered me," he said. Glass last month, he felt he was view- He explored these motivations in ing "a personal horror film." therapy and in his 2003 novel, The "It was [like] watching very good Fabulist (Simon & Schuster; $24), actors play out the very worst moments of my life," he said from his Manhattan about a fabricating reporter — also W 11/ 7 2003 80 Director Billy Ray and actor Hank Azaria on the set of "Shattered Glass." Azaria portrays Michael Kelly, Glass' mentor and editor of "The New Republic" from 19964997; Kelly, as editor at large for the 'Atlantic Monthly" was killed while on assignment in Iraq in April 2003. The filmmaker — an avid newspaper reader from age 8 — understands something about Glass. Both grew up in affluent, heavily Jewish suburbs (Ray in Encino, Calif.; Glass in Highland Park, Ill.), where parents expected chil- dren to succeed. "My family talked a lot about how Jews have always used education as their ticket," the director said. "The mindset is that you have a responsibili- named Stephen Glass — who braves national scorn. Like the real Glass, the fictional one retreats into a world that includes just his parents, his brother and girlfriend. One place the real Glass found com- fort was the Jewish community; several months after his disgrace, he anxiously ventured to High Holiday services at his childhood Conservative synagogue. "People knew all about the horrible sins that I had done, and here I was and what would they think of me?" he said. "[But] no one said a negative word." Glass said he began reading Torah commentary and met with rabbis, who described how a transgressor can rebuild his life. In The Fabulist, the main character also seeks solace from a rabbi and reconnects with his religion. ty to yourself, to your family and to the Jewish community at large to achieve, to bring pride and certainly not to fail." Glass, now 31, attended the University of Pennsylvania; Ray, 39, spent a less-than-srellar year at Northwestern's prestigious journalism program. "[One teacher] kept saying to me, 'You are never going to be a journal- ist,' because she felt my writing was too undisciplined and flowery," he said. THE FABULIST A NOVEL STEPHEN GLASS In Glass' 2003 novel, based on his. own experiences, the main character seeks solace from a rabbi and reconnects with his religion.