The makers of a movie starring US actor Tom Cruise about a failed plot to kill Adolf Hitler will most likely be allowed to use a German memorial site after all, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry said last week.
The ministry had said it would not allow the filmmakers to use the site because its dignity had to be protected.
But a letter from the co-producer describing a sequence from the beginning of the movie may have prompted a change of heart.
PHOTO: AP
"It draws a line from today's, democratic Germany to the memorial site where the (conspirators) were shot," the spokesman said on Friday. "I believe it shows that barbarism did not prevail but that at the end of the day a democratic Germany rose again."
"Both sides are willing to reach an accord, let's just wait a little while longer, I think it will come to a good end."
The site in question is the Bendlerblock memorial inside the Defense Ministry complex in Berlin. This is where Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, played by Cruise, and his co-conspirators hatched the plot and where he and his closest comrades were executed when it failed.
PHOTO: STUDIO BABELSBERG AG
Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has said the filmmakers cannot shoot at any military sites as long as Cruise plays the lead role, and Stauffenberg's eldest son has said he does not want Cruise to portray his father.
Cruise, also one of the film's producers, is a member of the Church of Scientology, which the German government does not recognize as a church. Berlin says it masquerades as a religion to make money.
The film, slated for a 2008 release and to be directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Kenneth Branagh, is called Valkyrie after Operation Valkyrie, the plot's codename.
PHOTO: AP
Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were shot after failing to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944.
Meanwhile, Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst has pleaded no contest to seven misdemeanors, including assault, battery and reckless driving, for deliberately hitting two people with his car.
William Fred Durst, 37, entered the pleas Aug. 16 and was handed a suspended 120-day jail sentence, ordered to perform 20 hours of community service and fined US$1,500, according to Superior Court documents.
The documents, first obtained by CelebTV.com, also show Durst was slapped with a restraining order saying he cannot "annoy, harass, strike, threaten or otherwise disturb the peace" of the two victims, whose names were not disclosed.
Durst must stay at least 100m away from the victims and he cannot possess a firearm.
Durst allegedly hit the two Los Angeles residents with his vehicle on Oct. 26, 2006, according to the documents. Misdemeanor charges filed in January included two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of battery, one count of making a criminal threat and one count of reckless driving.
There were no details about the incident.
Supermodel Helena Christensen recently appeared in an environmental ad campaign urging people to "do a good turn." But one of her New York neighbors says the Danish model will not do the same in a dispute over a deck on her Manhattan apartment.
Fran Panasci sued Christensen Thursday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeking to have the wooden deck torn down. Panasci says the deck, off the model's home on Hudson Street in the chic West Village, generates noise and vibrations and intrudes on her building on neighboring Charles Street.
"It blocks all light, all air, and it's damaging my client's building," said Panasci's lawyer, Elizabeth Harrington. She said Panasci had tried unsuccessfully to settle the dispute without going to court.
But Christensen's spokesman, Jason Deyonker, said the deck was legal and Panasci's complaints "have already been addressed." He said Christensen had tried to resolve Panasci's concerns over the past year and had brought in an engineering firm to make sure the deck would not cause trouble, the Daily News reported Friday.
Christensen, 38, became known in the US after appearing in the atmospheric, black-and-white video for singer-songwriter Chris Isaak's hit Wicked Game in 1991. She co-owns a New York fashion and interior design shop, Butik.
- Agencies
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