Movie being made about an alum's scandalous career

Penn and Daily Pennsylvanian alumnus Stephen Glass' shattered career as a rising superstar journalist is going to break into movie theaters next year.

Lions Gate Films is now making a movie based upon Buzz Bissinger's story entitled Shattered Glass -- an account of Glass' full and partial fabrication of nearly half the articles that he wrote for The New Republic.

Hayden Christensen -- who played the young Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones -- will be starring as Glass. And Director of the film Billy Ray will begin shooting in August.

"It's being filmed in Montreal which is evidence that it's a low budget film," Peter Spiegel, College '92, said.

Investigative journalist Adam Penenberg broke the story in 1998 that Glass -- who was The Daily Pennsylvanian Executive Editor in 1993 -- had fabricated a story entitled "Hack Heaven" for TNR.

"His lawyers admitted that he made it up," Penenberg said.

Even Scott Calvert, College '94, thought Glass' articles were somewhat unbelievable.

"I would read his stories in TNR and they just seemed too good to be true," Calvert said.

Bissinger -- a Penn and DP alumnus-- said that the article was actually sold to HBO right after it came out

However, even though HBO never made the article into a TV movie, Bissinger thinks it will definitely get made this time.

Lions Gate Films media spokesman Peter Wilkes confirmed that Lions Gate is producing and distributing Shattered Glass, which is also the name of the movie.

And as of last week Greg Kinnear signed on to play the role of Charles Lane, TNR's editor at the time Glass had fully and partially fabricated 27 of the 41 stories he wrote for the publication.

Bissinger, who has read the script, finds it to be very faithful to his own article. However, Ray said that the script would be supplemented by his own research as well.

"It's an improbable tale of a young guy that is very popular and seems to be perfect on the outside, but was ripping off the system left and right," Bissinger said.

Bissinger also thinks it is a story that should be remembered even though he believes it tarnished the journalism profession.

"This is a story that should not be forgotten. It was outrageous. It was an insult to journalists around the world," Bissinger said.

However shocking the story of Glass' collapse may be, some colleagues feel that it may not have mass public appeal.

"It was a really hot and compelling story when it happened, but I find it hard to believe that anyone is going to be interested in it four years later," DP alumnus Spiegel said.

Kenneth Baer, College '94, agreed.

"Here is my prediction -- straight to video, it won't see the light of day," he said.

But Bissinger thinks that the movie will be a pot boiler since he considers it to be a film about espionage.

However, others feel that the Glass scandal does not even deserve to be projected onto the big screen.

"I'm a little appalled," Roxanne Patel, College '93, said. "As a journalist I am disturbed that his behavior is deemed sexy enough that they want to make a movie about it. There's a degree of notoriety about it that bothers me."

Although Glass, College '94, may have destroyed his own credibility, reputation and career, everyone who knew him before the incident occurred remembers him as an entirely different person.

"He was an amazing reporter. That's what is the shame of the whole thing," Baer, a DP colleague of Glass', said. "Steve is incredibly smart, worked incredibly hard and was really driven."

And many said that Glass was the last person they would have expected to do such a thing.

"I was flabbergasted just because I had never known Steve to do anything like that," Calvert said.

However, looking back, several DP colleagues saw some possible warning signs that Glass' career could go awry.

"He was almost too serious about his journalistic mission," Calvert reflected.

But Glass' character seemed to have drastically changed once it was revealed that he had been fabricating articles.

"As we de-bunked ['Hack Heaven'] he would lie... and come up with another source, another lie," Penenberg said.

Lane, among many others, had also been deceived by Glass.

"I caught him in a bunch of lies. He told a bunch of things to my face that were not true," Lane said. "He faked a website and showed me someone's fake business card."

Lane -- now a reporter for The Washington Post -- was never able to make Glass confess to fabricating "Hack Heaven." Instead, Glass only revealed information to his lawyer.

"Steve stipulated through his lawyer that for the most part our investigation was accurate," Lane said.

After Penenberg came forward with his investigation into "Hack Heaven," TNR conducted their own investigation of all the pieces Glass had written for the magazine.

Glass went on to graduate from Georgetown Law School and is now living in New York, according to Spiegel. However, he is not a registered practicing lawyer.

Glass did not respond to any emails or a phone call to his parents' home.

And while Glass' actions have brought him significant notoriety, some feel sorry that he will not be able to live a life without constant scrutiny.

"I really believe he was suffered greatly," Penenberg said. "I wish he had just told the truth. He had so many opportunities to come clean, but he wouldn't come clean."

Yet despite Glass having earned Joey Buttafuco fame, as Penenberg calls it, Baer believes he remains a decent person.

"I don't think Steve is an evil person at all. I don't know why he did what he did, but, hopefully, he is coming to terms with that," Baer said.

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