Jeremy, Claus, Alan and . . . Marc?
by Shaila K. Dewan, The New York Times
February 15, 2001
JEREMY IRONS was in town last Friday, on his way to the yacht LG Flatron in Wellington, New Zealand, the lead boat in the BT Global Challenge around-the-world race. "I shall be doing a bit of everything, sail changing, helming, navigation," Mr. Irons said. The 12 boats in the race will start on Sunday across the Tasman Sea to Sydney, Australia.
Mr. Irons was stopping in Brooklyn for the beginning of a retrospective of films from the producer EDWARD R. PRESSMAN at the BAM Rose Cinemas. The first film was "Reversal of Fortune" (1990), for which Mr. Irons won an Oscar for playing Claus von Bulow, a society figure accused of trying to murder his wife, Martha.
After the screening, Mr. Pressman, GLENN CLOSE (who played Martha, nicknamed Sunny), the lawyer ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ (who represented Mr. von Bulow) and Mr. Irons fielded questions. Mr. Dershowitz noted that Sunny von Bulow remains in a coma in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, 20 years after the events in the film, and that Mr. von Bulow, whose conviction was overturned, lives quietly in London.
Now, Mr. Dershowitz suggested, Mr. Irons should tackle playing another society figure snatched from the grasp of the law, Marc Rich. Mr. Irons seemed puzzled, until Ms. Close explained who Marc Rich was.
At a party at Kino, a new spot on the Brooklyn waterfront, Mr. Dershowitz elaborated. "I think Marc Rich is a real victim of media bias," he said. "No one has allowed him to tell his story. And there's a resemblance to von Bulow."
Such a movie, presumably, would not be based on "Metal Men: How Marc Rich Defrauded the Country, Evaded the Law and Became the World's Most Sought After Corporate Criminal," a 1986 book by A. Craig Copetas that HarperCollins has retitled and is reissuing next month.