Scorsese film in publicist mess ahead of Oscars

The controversy over renowned director Robert Wise’s newspaper opinion column endorsing Miramax’s Gangs of New York for an Academy Award took a new twist on Friday when a publicist working on the studio’s Oscar campaign admitted that he had actually written the piece.

Murray Weissman said he wrote the article praising Gangs of New York director Martin Scorsese. Weissman is a veteran film and television publicist, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and also serves on the academy’s public relations branch executive committee.

The column was published under Wise’s name as an opinion column in the Los Angeles Daily News and the Long Beach Press-Telegram. It was subsequently reprinted by Miramax at least six times as a paid advertisement.