Word: blackmailed
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...garbage." The Sun also reveals that Holliday purportedly attempted to sell her daughter to an English couple for 4,000 pounds and "is said to have taken the money." The child, named Marni, has been safely adopted by a Philadelphia couple. Scotland Yard is reportedly investigating Holliday for attempted blackmail...
...ghosts had used this show to convince Scrooge how wonderful Christmas is, the old man would have been justified in denying Tiny Tim his goose. Yes, many Christmas customs are pagan in origin, but does that justify a special Christmas episode of Melrose Place in which Jennifer tries to blackmail Lexi, who ODs? And as for the drama specials, most of which seem to star Richard Thomas, they certainly ought to make us cry, but they too often resort to the cheapest tricks...
Kennedy's compulsive womanizing is of consequence not only for what it says about his character but also because it could have made him vulnerable to blackmail. Hersh suggests that it did, but never produces convincing proof. Why did Kennedy name Johnson as his running mate, despite Robert Kennedy's distaste for Johnson? Many historians have concluded that it was pure political calculation: Johnson could deliver Texas. Hersh thinks it was blackmail. He says that during a closed-door meeting with Kennedy, Johnson may have threatened to disclose J.F.K.'s dirty laundry, though Hersh doesn't know which laundry...
Raskin's claim is seconded by Clark Clifford, the longtime Washington power broker, who tells Hersh he served as Kennedy's go-between with Symington. Later, says Clifford, Kennedy told him he was forced to accept Johnson. But blackmail is a badly stretched conclusion for an author who has so little hard evidence to go on--and who paints Johnson in other parts of the book as ignorant of Kennedy's hidden undertakings...
What ensues is a drawn-out mess of a plot, involving seduction, blackmail and some randomly inserted surrealistic interludes featuring Wallace Shawn as the devil. Nothing in the health-care industry, Lumet asserts, is what it seems, and everyone is out to make a quick buck. That's all well and good, but with material so decidedly unenlightening, Lumet as a filmmaker should at least present it in an entertaining or thought-provoking manner. Instead, he putters along, trying to convince the audience that they are seeing something...