Guardian Unlimited Film: Moore film sets targets close to home

Guardian Unlimited Film | News | Moore film sets targets close to home: "Not content with lambasting the Bush administration, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is now poised to bite the very hand that feeds it - albeit inadvertently.

One of Moore's prime targets is the Carlyle Group, a Washington DC-based investment firm that allegedly links the Bush and Bin Laden families. The trouble is that the company recently became co-owner of the very cinema chain due to screen Fahrenheit 9/11 across America.

On its US release this Friday, Moore's film will play on 59 screens of the Loews cinema chain. But Variety reports that the chain is now part-owned by the Carlyle Group, a defence contractor that Moore derides as a war profiteer with extensive ties with the Bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family. The first president Bush worked as a highly paid adviser to the company, while James Baker - chief of staff under Ronald Reagan - is currently employed as a senior counsellor.

Yesterday the film's independent distributor, Lion's Gate Films Releasing, appeared to be steering clear of the controversy, claiming that they were not even aware of the Carlyle Group's involvement in the Loews chain. 'Loews has been very supportive,' said Lion's Gate president Tom Ortenberg."