Crazy Diamond
11-22-2006, 03:32 AM
Our man in Tashkent waits for word from Angelina
By Oliver Duff
The Independent
Published: 17 October 2006
* A tale of morally dubious foreign ministers, torture, executions, oil and extra-marital love is shaping up to be the undiplomatic diplomatic movie of 2008. (New sub-genre.)
Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, was smeared and sacked by the Foreign Office in 2004 for commenting on human rights abuses in the Central Asian state - an ally in the US and Britain's "war on terror". He alleged that Britain conspired with the Bush administration to sanction the use of information extracted through torture. (The Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, is partial to boiling political dissidents in water.)
Murray's memoirs from the time, Murder in Samarkand, are being made into a film by British director Michael Winterbottom, funded by Paramount and Plan B (Brad Pitt's production company ). Sir David Hare has almost finished the script. Steve Coogan plays our whisky-swilling, kilt-wearer in Tashkent.
During his tour, Murray, 48, split with his wife for an Uzbek beauty, Nadira Alieva, in her early 20s.
Word has it that her role will be played by Angelina Jolie - with whom Winterbottom is currently filming A Mighty Heart in India, about the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl.
"I have been told that Angelina Jolie will be in the film, which is an extraordinary thing," says Murray. "I can't say for definite - speak to her for that. But the whole thing's astonishing."
A message left for Jolie's manager in Los Angeles remains unanswered. How very diplomatic.
насилие и пытки со стороны правительства против своего народа дело серьезное. но отстраняясь на секунду от этого - честное слово, майкл винтервоттом (морознаязадница в нашем простонародье) явно льстит Крейгу и Нодире. :D :D
(внизу: крейг муррей, стив куган, крейг и надира, ангелина)
By Oliver Duff
The Independent
Published: 17 October 2006
* A tale of morally dubious foreign ministers, torture, executions, oil and extra-marital love is shaping up to be the undiplomatic diplomatic movie of 2008. (New sub-genre.)
Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, was smeared and sacked by the Foreign Office in 2004 for commenting on human rights abuses in the Central Asian state - an ally in the US and Britain's "war on terror". He alleged that Britain conspired with the Bush administration to sanction the use of information extracted through torture. (The Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, is partial to boiling political dissidents in water.)
Murray's memoirs from the time, Murder in Samarkand, are being made into a film by British director Michael Winterbottom, funded by Paramount and Plan B (Brad Pitt's production company ). Sir David Hare has almost finished the script. Steve Coogan plays our whisky-swilling, kilt-wearer in Tashkent.
During his tour, Murray, 48, split with his wife for an Uzbek beauty, Nadira Alieva, in her early 20s.
Word has it that her role will be played by Angelina Jolie - with whom Winterbottom is currently filming A Mighty Heart in India, about the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl.
"I have been told that Angelina Jolie will be in the film, which is an extraordinary thing," says Murray. "I can't say for definite - speak to her for that. But the whole thing's astonishing."
A message left for Jolie's manager in Los Angeles remains unanswered. How very diplomatic.
насилие и пытки со стороны правительства против своего народа дело серьезное. но отстраняясь на секунду от этого - честное слово, майкл винтервоттом (морознаязадница в нашем простонародье) явно льстит Крейгу и Нодире. :D :D
(внизу: крейг муррей, стив куган, крейг и надира, ангелина)