War, Peace and Oscars

[Jeffersons Ghost]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

February 2, 2010, 3:39 pm War, Peace and Oscars
By MELENA RYZIK

Apocryphal history and bombastic entertainment are strange bedfellows, as Quentin Tarantino showed in “Inglourious Basterds,” but not as strange, perhaps, as the twin interests of Lawrence Bender, a producer of that movie. Mr. Bender was in Paris at a nuclear disarmament conference when he heard the news that “Basterds” had nabbed eight Oscar nominations, via a phone call from his mom.

“My BlackBerry starting buzzing, and I’m sitting here between different ambassadors and different C.I.A. people,” he said, “so it was pretty awesome.” (Sorry, Mom: He didn’t pick up.)

Mr. Bender, also a producer of “An Inconvenient Truth,” was at the conference promoting a documentary that he made about nuclear disarmament, “Countdown to Zero,” which received good notices at Sundance. The disparity between that message and Mr. Tarantino’s ultra-violent oeuvre (Mr. Bender also produced “Pulp Fiction”) didn’t seem to bother him. “The two things that I love,” he said, “are making a difference in the world and making movies.”

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/war-peace-and-oscars/?scp=2&sq=cia%20feb%202,%202010&st=cse