![]() ![]() ![]() It would be like transcribing locker room talk, writing it up as news – pure tabloid stuff. To do so would be stupid, nay offensive, because no one would care, and it would be prurient, and distract everyone from the very important, dignified matters at hand, matters of government. In the film, the media is guilty for betraying the old gentleman’s agreement that for decades meant that a president such as John Kennedy or Lyndon Johnson could shtup whichever personal assistant or job applicant he wanted, and the last thing that would happen would be that somebody would write it up. ![]() The Front Runner, a new film about Hart’s 1988 presidential candidacy and its ignominious collapse, is a pained love letter to the good old days, a morality tale in which the ostensible transgressor turns out to be the victim, and his self-appointed judge and jury – the media – are in fact the culprits. The good old days, when a 50-year-old married US senator, running for president, might have invited a 29-year-old model-actor he first met at Don Henley’s house to spend a weekend with him in Washington, and expect discretion on all sides.Įxcept when Gary Hart did that, in May 1987, the good old days – as soon became explosively clear – were already ending. ![]()
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