JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone and Me

A revealing insider's look at one of Hollywood's most prominent, private, and notoriously difficult directors; at the way the film business works; and at the Washington/Hollywood connection. JFK, Nixon, Oliver Stone and Me is the funny, thoughtful memoir of an accomplished former Congressional staffer who left D.C. for Hollywood and a job with Oliver Stone, hoping to help make politically engaged films and a difference, and found himself instead in a wildly dysfunctional universe ruled by greed, paranoia, narcissism, competition, alcohol and drugs. After finishing law school, Eric Hamburg became an unusually effective young staffer on Capitol Hill-convincing his boss, Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, to submit a bill that would release the House's closely held files on the John F. Kennedy assassination investigation, one of Hamburg's own pet obsessions. This led to his meeting Oliver Stone and soon-much to his own surprise-Hamburg found swimming amongst the sneakiest of Hollywood sharks. Hamburg describes his fascinating experiences working on the films Nixon and Any Given Sunday while navigating the arcane politics of Stone's studio, Ixtlan. Pursuing film projects (and Kennedy assassination leads), he also muses on the ways and means of the movie biz; on the strange symbiotic Washington/Hollywood relationship; on the meaning of success and the price of power. His story is a contemporary Mr. Smith Goes to Hollywood, told by a narrator of wit, intelligence, and a singular set of experiences.