Michael Moore and Oprah: 'A Love Story'?

When it comes to the most eagerly anticipated movie showing at next week's Toronto Film Festival, the hands-down winner has to be Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story." Arriving 20 years after the debut of "Roger & Me," it is being billed as Moore's magnum opus on the horrific impact of corporate dominance on the lives of everyday Americans, which means that the film should spark a conflagration of debate between Moore's always ferocious advocates and detractors.

But when I called Overture Films, which is releasing the film later this month, eager to set up an interview with Moore, I got bad news. The filmmaker was willing to do interviews after the film premieres in Toronto on Sept. 16, but Overture said that all interviews were embargoed until Sept. 23, the day of the film's release in New York and Los Angeles. Why? Because Moore is doing a sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, which won't air until Sept. 22. And if Oprah wants an exclusive, she gets it, since when it comes to books, movies or music, no one offers a better promotional platform than La Winfrey.

Of course, this being the modern-media age, the embargo isn't quite as tightly shrink-wrapped as it first sounded. It turns out that the New York Times has a big Sunday feature interview with Moore scheduled to run on Sept. 20, while Jay Leno has booked a Moore appearance a few days earlier. Since both of those interviews were booked pre-Oprah, they've been allowed to wiggle out from under the embargo.

This puts a reporter-blogger like myself in a tricky spot. Like most journalists, I want to run my stories as competitively as possible. But if I agree to an embargo, my story would definitely lack a lot of sparks, having to come after both Oprah and the New York Times. I've also never held a story from a film festival. The whole idea of covering a festival, especially for a blogger, is to provide timely reaction and analysis to the big events of the day.

I'll be huddling with my editors, figuring out how we plan to cover the movie. But I'd be curious to hear from readers: Is it worth the wait to hear from Michael Moore? Or should I just see the film and offer my own thoughts in a more timely manner? What do you think?

  

Comments

[Aaron]

Good for Michael Moore. People have ripped and torn at him but he rose from the ashes of Detroit Michigan, made it in a market that everyone else mocked and he has worked hard and revealing truth when nobody wanted to hear it, now everyone knows who he is, even Oprah knows, "That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone." --Thomas Jefferson

[David Jensen]

Don't agree to the embargo. All the good stuff is likely to be in the NYT piece. Blog off that and point out that readers are going to die a 100, slow deaths as the media is duped into dribbling out picayune details over the next few weeks. Embargoes are supposed to be mutually beneficial. In this case, it is simply manipulative and does not serve the reader well.

You don't need an interview to write about the film. It should stand on its own.

[Matthew]

Naaahhh...Just cancel the film festival and find another story to report...I mean, really now, you're gonna offer me better insight than the NY Times, Oprah and Jay Leno??? Sure pal...sure...I'd rather you just follow the titans, k? Now run along lil bloggy and play...

[Nita]

Give us the scoop asap. I admire a true reporters opinion
more than I do a staged Oprah Show!!!

[madelikethis]

See the film. Offer your thoughts. Do a post-Oprah follow-up. They will both be apprecaited!

[Eric]

Inasmuch as we're doubltlessly going to be inundated with media pieces surrounding the debut of the film, do you really think you're likely to glean any extra insight by waiting for an interview?

[Gene]

Patrick,

IMHO, if you are planning to blog about interest in and reaction to the film, while being on-location at the Toronto FF, an interview with the filmmaker himself beforehand isn't relevant to how you and other TFF filmgoers initially perceive the movie.

And unless(?) you have a VERY unique take regarding the questions you would ask Moore, waiting until Oprah has asked the obvious and routine questions and then doing a similar interview with Moore yourself soon after would seem to be somewhat lackluster.

[John O]

See the movie and give your thoughts. The inerview and your comments will be stale if you wait until after Oprah.

[Kristin Aguilar]

I say wait till after. That way you can get info that all others didnt and maybe comment on how the public audience is reacting to the film and ask his opinion on that and on current events at that time?

[jbrian]

Patrick, your duty as a journalist and an online blogger is to get the information to the people asap, damn the embargoes (and if you are nikki finke, damn the facts!). Seriously, go see the movie, attend the press conference, and tell us what the movie is about and what he says in public.

If you want a one-on-one interview with Moore, the only restriction you should follow is a 100% ironclad embargo that goes for you, Leno, Oprah, the NY Times, Time, Newsweek, and everyone else. Your job is to tell the news, not to act as a shill for Mr. Moore's publicity and marketing plans. Didn't you learn all this in Journalism 101?