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Miami Herald
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Is Hollywood inspired by the CIA, or the other way around?
LANGLEY, Va. - At CIA headquarters, beyond the handsome granite seal on its lobby floor and a wall of stars carved in honor of the agency's fallen, experts are at work in the complex tasks of spycraft: weapons-trained officers, computer engineers, virologists, nuclear scientists. But there are also storytellers, makeup artists, theater majors and ballerinas - Americans who probably never thought their skills would match the needs of a spy agency. Yet the CIA thought otherwise. Though it rarely gets the spotlight, there's a revolving door of talent between the country's premiere intelligence agency and its entertainment industry, with inspiration and influence often working both ways. The agency is targeting professionals at the intersection of arts and technology for recruitment, CIA officers told The Times, and continues to cooperate with entertainment giants to inspire the next generation of creative spies. This month, the agency is assisting a New York Times bestselling author on a young adult book examining the foundations of the CIA laid during World War II. Scenes from a major upcoming film production were just shot at its headquarters, a logistical feat at an intelligence campus tucked away in the Virginia suburbs behind rings of security perimeters, where officers roam cracking down on Bluetooth signals. Another popular streaming TV series will be back at Langley to film this fall. But their collaboration goes far deeper than that, officers said. Creative minds in Hollywood and the entertainment industry have long had a role at the Central Intelligence Agency, devising clever solutions to its most vexing problems, such as perfecting the art of disguise and harnessing a magician's ability to cast spellbinding illusions. Indeed, in the 1950s, a magician from New York named John Mulholland was secretly contracted with the agency to write a manual for Cold War spies on trickery and deception. These days, the officers said, creative skills are more valuable than ever in such a technologically complex world. "You're only limited by your own imagination - don't self-censor your ideas," said Janelle, a CIA public affairs officer, granted the ability to speak under her first name at the request of the agency. "We're always looking for partners." An elusive history David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and author of "Damascus Station" and other spy thrillers, offered several theories on why the agency might be interested in fostering a robust relationship with Hollywood, calling it "a two-way street." "There definitely have been operational applications for espionage," McCloskey said. "It's probably the exception to the rule, but when it happens, it's compelling." It's easy to see why CIA leaders would be interested in Hollywood, he said, in part to shape impressions of the agency. "But their bread and butter business is receiving people to give secrets," he continued, "and part of that is getting close to people in power." "The closer you are to Hollywood," McCloskey added, "that's a really interesting 'in' to having a lot of interesting conversations." Some of the CIA's most iconic missions - at least the declassified ones - document the agency's rich history with Hollywood, including Canadian Caper, when CIA operatives disguised themselves as a film crew to rescue six American diplomats in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis, an operation moviegoers will recognize as the plot of "Argo." "'Argo' was almost too far-fetched to even believe," said Brent, an in-house historian at CIA headquarters. "It's almost more Hollywood than Hollywood." Canadian Caper was both inspired by Hollywood and relied on Hollywood talent. Agent Tony Mendez had been a graphic artist before joining the agency and helping craft the mission. Another key player was John Chambers, the makeup artist who gave the world Spock's ears on "Star Trek" and won an honorary Oscar for his trailblazing simian work on "Planet of the Apes." He was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work on the covert rescue effort. Just a few years before, Howard Hughes, then one of the world's richest men and a tycoon in media, film and aerospace, agreed to work with the CIA to provide cover for an effort by the agency to lift a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine off the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Deploying Hughes' Glomar Explorer under the guise of mineral extraction, the CIA was able to salvage most of the sub before The Times broke a story blowing its cover - "the story that sunk our efforts," in CIA parlance. And another mission was made possible thanks to a device invented by a professional photographer - a gadget that later became the inspiration of an over-the-top scene in the blockbuster Batman film "The Dark Knight." In Project Coldfeet, CIA agents gathering intelligence on a Soviet station erected on a precariously drifting sheet of ice in the Arctic needed a reliable extraction plan. But how does one pick up an agent without landing a plane on the ice? The answer was the "skyhook": Balloons lifted a tether attached to a harness worn by an agent high into the sky. A CIA plane snagged the tether and carried the agent off to safety. In "The Dark Knight," Batman makes a dramatic escape deploying the same kind of balloon-harness contraption. 'The superhero spy' CIA leadership often says that acceptance into the agency is harder than getting into Harvard and Yale combined. Yet the agency still has challenges recruiting the type of talent it is looking for - either in reaching those with unconventional skills, or in convincing them that they should leave secure, comparatively well-paid, comfortable jobs for a secretive life of public service. It is no easy task managing work at the agency, especially with family, CIA officials acknowledged. Deciding if and when to share one's true identity with their children is a regular struggle. But Janelle said the CIA tells potential recruits there is a middle ground that doesn't require them to entirely abandon their existing lives. "People don't have to leave their companies to help their country and to work with CIA," Janelle said. "People come here because they love their country and know they can make a difference." Janelle is part of a team that regularly engages with creatives who want to portray the agency or spies as accurately as possible. "Some producers and directors reach out and they do care about accuracy," Janelle said, "but they ultimately pick and choose what's going to work for the film or show." CIA analysts have also been known to leave the agency for opportunities in the entertainment industry, writing books and scripts drawing from their experiences - so long as they don't track too closely with those experiences. Joe Weisberg, the writer and producer behind the television series "The Americans," and McCloskey, who is working on a fifth novel focused on U.S. and British intelligence, were both part of the agency before launching their writing careers. And as CIA alumni, they had to submit their works for review. "There's a whole publication and classification-review process," Brent said. That process can be a bit of a slog, McCloskey said: "They quite literally redact in black ink." But it is far more difficult for nonfiction writers than novelists. "There could be bits of tradecraft, or alluding to assets, or people at the agency, which are clear no's," McCloskey said. "But with novels, it's not that hard to write them in a way to get them through the review board." Try as they may, studios often repeat the same falsehoods about the CIA, no matter how often they are corrected. Officers and agents aren't the same thing, for one. And as disappointing as it may be for lovers of spy thrillers, the majority of officers are not licensed or trained to carry weapons. "One thing Hollywood often gets wrong is the idea that it's one officer doing everything, when it's really a team sport here," Janelle said. "Zero Dark Thirty," an Oscar-winning film released in 2012 about the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, was widely acclaimed but criticized by some within the intelligence community over the credit it lends a single, fictional CIA analyst for tracking him down. McCloskey sympathizes with the writer's dilemma. "I can't have 35 people on a team. From a storytelling standpoint, it just doesn't work," he said, acknowledging that little in the field of espionage is accurately captured on screen, even though there are plenty of former spies available to work as consultants. "There's no lack of sources to get it right," he said. "It's that the superhero spy - the Jack Ryans and Jason Bournes - are pretty much the Hollywood representation of espionage." However inaccurately glorified and dramatized, the agency hopes that Hollywood's work can keep the revolving door moving, inspiring atypical talent to join its ranks. "We have architects, carpenters, people who worked in logistics," Brent said. "People might not realize the range of skill sets here at CIA." And as Canadian Caper showed, sometimes spycraft requires stagecraft. It's possible that what's needed most to complete the next mission won't be oceanography or data mining, but costume design. Or maybe another ballerina. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Los Angeles Times
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Is Hollywood inspired by the CIA, or the other way around?
LANGLEY, Va. — At CIA headquarters, beyond the handsome granite seal on its lobby floor and a wall of stars carved in honor of the agency's fallen, experts are at work in the complex tasks of spycraft: weapons-trained officers, computer engineers, virologists, nuclear scientists. But there are also storytellers, makeup artists, theater majors and ballerinas — Americans who probably never thought their skills would match the needs of a spy agency. Yet the CIA thought otherwise. Though it rarely gets the spotlight, there's a revolving door of talent between the country's premiere intelligence agency and its entertainment industry, with inspiration and influence often working both ways. The agency is targeting professionals at the intersection of arts and technology for recruitment, CIA officers told The Times, and continues to cooperate with entertainment giants to inspire the next generation of creative spies. This month, the agency is assisting a New York Times bestselling author on a young adult book examining the foundations of the CIA laid during World War II. Scenes from a major upcoming film production were just shot at its headquarters, a logistical feat at an intelligence campus tucked away in the Virginia suburbs behind rings of security perimeters, where officers roam cracking down on Bluetooth signals. Another popular streaming TV series will be back at Langley to film this fall. But their collaboration goes far deeper than that, officers said. Creative minds in Hollywood and the entertainment industry have long had a role at the Central Intelligence Agency, devising clever solutions to its most vexing problems, such as perfecting the art of disguise and harnessing a magician's ability to cast spellbinding illusions. Indeed, in the 1950s, a magician from New York named John Mulholland was secretly contracted with the agency to write a manual for Cold War spies on trickery and deception. These days, the officers said, creative skills are more valuable than ever in such a technologically complex world. 'You're only limited by your own imagination — don't self-censor your ideas,' said Janelle, a CIA public affairs officer, granted the ability to speak under her first name at the request of the agency. 'We're always looking for partners.' David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and author of 'Damascus Station' and other spy thrillers, offered several theories on why the agency might be interested in fostering a robust relationship with Hollywood, calling it 'a two-way street.' 'There definitely have been operational applications for espionage,' McCloskey said. 'It's probably the exception to the rule, but when it happens, it's compelling.' It's easy to see why CIA leaders would be interested in Hollywood, he said, in part to shape impressions of the agency. 'But their bread and butter business is receiving people to give secrets,' he continued, 'and part of that is getting close to people in power.' 'The closer you are to Hollywood,' McCloskey added, 'that's a really interesting 'in' to having a lot of interesting conversations.' Some of the CIA's most iconic missions — at least the declassified ones — document the agency's rich history with Hollywood, including Canadian Caper, when CIA operatives disguised themselves as a film crew to rescue six American diplomats in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis, an operation moviegoers will recognize as the plot of 'Argo.' ''Argo' was almost too far-fetched to even believe,' said Brent, an in-house historian at CIA headquarters. 'It's almost more Hollywood than Hollywood.' Canadian Caper was both inspired by Hollywood and relied on Hollywood talent. Agent Tony Mendez had been a graphic artist before joining the agency and helping craft the mission. Another key player was John Chambers, the makeup artist who gave the world Spock's ears on 'Star Trek' and won an honorary Oscar for his trailblazing simian work on 'Planet of the Apes.' He was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work on the covert rescue effort. Just a few years before, Howard Hughes, then one of the world's richest men and a tycoon in media, film and aerospace, agreed to work with the CIA to provide cover for an effort by the agency to lift a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine off the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Deploying Hughes' Glomar Explorer under the guise of mineral extraction, the CIA was able to salvage most of the sub before The Times broke a story blowing its cover — 'the story that sunk our efforts,' in CIA parlance. And another mission was made possible thanks to a device invented by a professional photographer — a gadget that later became the inspiration of an over-the-top scene in the blockbuster Batman film 'The Dark Knight.' In Project Coldfeet, CIA agents gathering intelligence on a Soviet station erected on a precariously drifting sheet of ice in the Arctic needed a reliable extraction plan. But how does one pick up an agent without landing a plane on the ice? The answer was the 'skyhook': Balloons lifted a tether attached to a harness worn by an agent high into the sky. A CIA plane snagged the tether and carried the agent off to safety. In 'The Dark Knight,' Batman makes a dramatic escape deploying the same kind of balloon-harness contraption. CIA leadership often says that acceptance into the agency is harder than getting into Harvard and Yale combined. Yet the agency still has challenges recruiting the type of talent it is looking for — either in reaching those with unconventional skills, or in convincing them that they should leave secure, comparatively well-paid, comfortable jobs for a secretive life of public service. It is no easy task managing work at the agency, especially with family, CIA officials acknowledged. Deciding if and when to share one's true identity with their children is a regular struggle. But Janelle said the CIA tells potential recruits there is a middle ground that doesn't require them to entirely abandon their existing lives. 'People don't have to leave their companies to help their country and to work with CIA,' Janelle said. 'People come here because they love their country and know they can make a difference.' Janelle is part of a team that regularly engages with creatives who want to portray the agency or spies as accurately as possible. 'Some producers and directors reach out and they do care about accuracy,' Janelle said, 'but they ultimately pick and choose what's going to work for the film or show.' CIA analysts have also been known to leave the agency for opportunities in the entertainment industry, writing books and scripts drawing from their experiences — so long as they don't track too closely with those experiences. Joe Weisberg, the writer and producer behind the television series 'The Americans,' and McCloskey, who is working on a fifth novel focused on U.S. and British intelligence, were both part of the agency before launching their writing careers. And as CIA alumni, they had to submit their works for review. 'There's a whole publication and classification-review process,' Brent said. That process can be a bit of a slog, McCloskey said: 'They quite literally redact in black ink.' But it is far more difficult for nonfiction writers than novelists. 'There could be bits of tradecraft, or alluding to assets, or people at the agency, which are clear no's,' McCloskey said. 'But with novels, it's not that hard to write them in a way to get them through the review board.' Try as they may, studios often repeat the same falsehoods about the CIA, no matter how often they are corrected. Officers and agents aren't the same thing, for one. And as disappointing as it may be for lovers of spy thrillers, the majority of officers are not licensed or trained to carry weapons. 'One thing Hollywood often gets wrong is the idea that it's one officer doing everything, when it's really a team sport here,' Janelle said. 'Zero Dark Thirty,' an Oscar-winning film released in 2012 about the hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was widely acclaimed but criticized by some within the intelligence community over the credit it lends a single, fictional CIA analyst for tracking him down. McCloskey sympathizes with the writer's dilemma. 'I can't have 35 people on a team. From a storytelling standpoint, it just doesn't work,' he said, acknowledging that little in the field of espionage is accurately captured on screen, even though there are plenty of former spies available to work as consultants. 'There's no lack of sources to get it right,' he said. 'It's that the superhero spy — the Jack Ryans and Jason Bournes — are pretty much the Hollywood representation of espionage.' However inaccurately glorified and dramatized, the agency hopes that Hollywood's work can keep the revolving door moving, inspiring atypical talent to join its ranks. 'We have architects, carpenters, people who worked in logistics,' Brent said. 'People might not realize the range of skill sets here at CIA.' And as Canadian Caper showed, sometimes spycraft requires stagecraft. It's possible that what's needed most to complete the next mission won't be oceanography or data mining, but costume design. Or maybe another ballerina.
The Herald Scotland
16-06-2025
- General
- The Herald Scotland
Be sure to oil your doors...or this is bound to happen
Education Correspondent John Mulholland provides us with the following vignette, which illustrates the challenges faced by teachers... Teacher: 'Now that I have explained the meaning of the word 'aftermath,' would someone like to give me a sentence containing the word 'aftermath'?' Pupil: 'My timetable on a Friday is a disaster because I get two periods of English after Math.' 'How ridiculous,' says John. 'Everyone in Scotland should know it's Maths.' Fighting talk WE'RE discussing those muddling modes of language known as malapropisms. Derek Blakey worked with a lady famous for her unique turn of phrase. She once revealed that while watching a TV documentary about the Second World War, she was impressed by the heroism of the famous fighting force, the Gherkins. Says Derek: 'One thing they did do, was get us out of a pickle.' Read more: Finding yourself in one of Glasgow's less than salubrious watering holes Forging a friendship ENJOYING a sip of an alcoholic beverage in an Edinburgh hostelry, reader Sheila Davis overheard two ladies in deep conference at a nearby table. Said one to the other: 'She's what I call an AI person.' 'What d'you mean?' asked her confused companion. 'You know,' said the first lady. 'Totally fake.' Dead cruel AN unholy confession from reader Roddy Ferguson, who says: 'If my grandmother knew how much I spent on her funeral, she'd be rolling over in her ditch.' World affairs INTERNATIONAL diplomacy is sadly in short supply nowadays. Though we are delighted to report that there are still some enclaves of sophisticated statecraft, in the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden, no less. Reader Brian Clark and his wife were at a dinner party in that delightful neck of the woods the other evening. After the food had been duly scoffed, the chap of the house stood up and said to his guests: 'Let me take you to the United Nations.' 'What?' said a confused Brian. 'Come on,' continued mine host, 'it's in my living room.' Brian's confusion immediately evaporated upon being guided to the room in question, where he was, indeed, confronted by a fully operational UN. A well-stocked drinks cabinet containing... German beer, French wine and Scotch whisky. Candy-coated crash-out THE working world can be harsh. Peter Wright from West Kilbride says: 'I was fired from my very first job as a quality controller at M&M's. I kept rejecting the Ws.'
The Herald Scotland
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
A tale of how mock sincerity was easily overcome
'Let's not make a heavy night of it,' said one of the ladies. 'After the next drink, maybe we should just stick to mocktails.' Her friend didn't look persuaded, and after a brief pause she said: 'How about we stick to mock mocktails?' The first woman was clearly confused by the suggestion. She wrinkled her forehead and thought about this conundrum, before finally admitting: 'I've never heard of a mock mocktail.' 'Some people,' explained the pal, 'call it a cocktail.' 'Ah,' said her friend. 'I noticed,' reports Avril, 'that by the end of the evening they were very tipsy, indeed.' Dead funny Although the Diary is mostly a serious and hard-hitting commentary on the news, we occasionally stray into the arena of humour. Reader John Mulholland has been musing about the business of being amusing. 'I wonder,' he says, 'do dead comedians who were really funny, made people laugh, and did a lot for comedy get post-humorous awards?' George Crawford from West Kilbride isn't sure what the esteemed Victorian engineer, Isambard, would have thought of this Bristol restaurant's description of his texture… (Image: Contributed) Getting the sack Being a granddad often means putting up with shrieking kids. Tim Thackeray was at his seven-year-old granddaughter's birthday party, and thankfully there wasn't too much shrieking… only screaming and yelling. Also, lots of party balloons. Tim turned to his wife and said: 'I don't get the point of balloons at a party. They're just plastic sacks filled with other people's breath.' Jaws of despair One of the horrors of getting old is your teeth decide to become unfaithful and abandon your gums. And when they drop out, there's no point hiding them under your pillow and praying for a visit from the Tooth Fairy; she only dispenses the big bucks to kids. Instead, you have to visit the dentist and his good friends, the pliers. This is the situation Barry Davis found himself in when he got a terrible toothache. 'Does it look bad?' he whimpered to the dentist. Trying to be gentle, the dentist replied: 'Put it like this. The Toothbrush of Damocles is hanging over your head.' Picture this The ageing process, continued. 'I've come to the conclusion that I have a memory like an Etch A Sketch,' says reader Grant Miller. 'I shake my head and everything's erased.' Nicker nicked Enraged Billy Wright gets in touch to berate the criminal class. 'To the person who stole my glasses,' he says, 'be warned, I'll find you… I have my contacts.'
The Herald Scotland
15-05-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Here's how to party like John Lennon
Reader John Mulholland says: 'The nominative determinism gods clearly have a sense of humour, for the BBC reported that a consultant urologist has invented a new product that reduces plastic and simplifies the process for taking urine samples.' Adds John: 'There cannot be a better name for a man who has, no doubt, inserted many catheters than… Mr Nick Burns-Cox.' Jarring error Many years ago reader Robert Menzies was diagnosed as gluten-intolerant. 'Overnight I had to forego most biscuits and cakes,' he says. 'However, I found I could obtain gluten-free flour. My mother duly put this in a large glass container, which she then labelled as 'Glutton Free'.' 'At least she was half right,' adds Robert. Bonkers buying Lidl provides a fascinating shopping experience where you are apt to stumble upon the most idiosyncratic items for sale. A readers recently claimed to have spotted on the shelves, then purchased, a ukulele, a hedge-trimmer and a snorkel. Ian Noble from Carstairs Village was intrigued by this selection, and says. 'I'm trying to work out which of the items he would use with the snorkel. Maybe he uses both of them with it. Sub-aqua ukulele-playing and underwater hedge-trimming both sound like interesting activities.' David Donaldson spotted this car parked in Glasgow's Westbourne Gardens. 'This Mini Countryman will definitely get you from A to Z,' he says. 'In other words, the full gamut of destinations.' (Image: Contributed) Medical mystery For many years reader Simon Mitchell worked as a GP in a busy practice in Aberdeen, where he was confronted by a wide range of patients. Simon informed one husky voiced chap that he had laryngitis, which elicited a curious response. 'What on earth is that?' croaked the mystified patient. 'Sounds like some sort of Roman general.' Beatling about Strapped-for-cash reader Andy Michaels informed his teenage son that he'd be having a John Lennon-themed birthday party this year. 'What does that mean?' asked his highly suspicious son. 'You'll have to imagine all the people,' said dad. Captive audience A chum of reader Susan Peterson used to work as a tutor in a prison where the inmates were attempting to improve their literacy. Susan once asked her chum how the English teaching job was going. 'Oh, you know,' said the pal, 'it has its prose and cons.' Communication breakdown And now for a tragic tale of marital disharmony. 'My wife has threatened to leave me because of my obsession with old-fashioned CB radios,' sighs reader Brian Munro. 'I guess our marriage is over, over.'
