Jim Belushi plays a Spin reporter?????

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Apparently, Jim Belushi played a reporter from Spin magazine (Gregory Hines was his editor/partner) in the movie below:

Between 1979 and 1981, 31 African American children were murdered in or around the city of Atlanta, GA. When the murders began, they were not thoroughly investigated by the police, who could not have realized that what started out as two seemingly unrelated deaths would turn into something much worse. Throughout 1980 and 1981, a number of different teams of investigators tried to track down the killer, often doing work that the Police neglected to do themselves, and, after an extensive search, found a suspect named Wayne Williams who became the center of one of the most controversial trials of the 1980s. A flaky young man who was a well known pathological liar, Williams was prosecuted, even though there was no hard evidence linking him to the crime, and found guilty. This film is the story of two journalists from Spin magazine, Pat Laughlin and Ron Larson (Belushi & Hines), who return to Atlanta four years after the trial to uncover what went wrong during the investigation of the case and the conviction of Wayne Williams. The two dig up a host of troubling facts including proof that investigators altered evidence, abandoned leads, and were generally incompetent. During their stay in Atlanta, Laughlin and Larson endure the animosity of some locals, cagey police officers, and numerous dead ends as they try to learn the truth behind one of the most troubling murder cases in American history.

Does anybody know what Spin reporter or freelance journalist actually wrote the real article this movie and Belushi's charcter is based on???

― Steven Ward, Monday, 6 March 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

Chuck Eddy (Hines plays Greg Tate).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't Gregory Hines dead?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

Were all of his old movies supposed to disappear upon his death?

― Dan (Farewell, "White Nights") Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

If that were true, I'm off to kill Jim Carrey.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 6 March 2006 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

lol @ star wars geek haterade

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,, Monday, 6 March 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

I remember those articles.

Editor "Ron Larson" (played by Gregory Hines) and reporter "Pat Laughlin" (played by James Belushi) are actually fictionalized versions of Rudy Langlais and Robert Keating. Langlais executive produced the film.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

The stories were back in the days of the AIDS column, and a lot of other hard news reporting. Sigh.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:21 (nineteen years ago)

So this isn't a new movie, then.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

The TV movie came out in about 2000, I believe. Never saw it, myself...

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

Was Canadace Cameron-Bure in it?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 6 March 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

http://imdb.com/title/tt0221673/

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:12 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, those were the days. Celia Farber, the AIDS denier, capable of sucking editors into occasionally running her stuff (like Harper's), subsequently dragging them down with her.

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Monday, 6 March 2006 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

Okay, whatever, there were good articles in there.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

Jesus Christ, is that the "Alive & Well" woman? Didn't the Foo Fighters play a bunch of benefit shows for various AIDS=/=HIV-connection groups?

― T/S: Pinks/Oki Dog/Scoobys/Tail o' the Pup (Bent Over at the Arclight), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

Ah, the woman I'm thinking about is Christine Maggiore, who founded "Alive & Well," which Foo Fighters played benefit shows for. She refused medical treatment for her child, who contracted HIV in utero, and the child died of AIDS at 3 1/2 years old.

― T/S: Pinks/Oki Dog/Scoobys/Tail o' the Pup (Bent Over at the Arclight), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

I should add I was 16 at the time...

Before you tar the entire '80s Spin period with this tangent, let me ask, was the Live-Aid expose not pretty much spot-on? It's been a while, but I remember a lot of good political reporting in Spin.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

Before you tar the entire '80s Spin period with this tangent

But it's a big tangent. SPIN was the only mainstreal place Peter Duesberg could get his cracked claims covered seriously. Without that foundation, AIDS denial might have had no place to go. It's something of which Guccione the son can be quite proud. I read the magazine a lot back then and the AIDS denial stuff is the only hard news stuff I remember. I may also recall an interview with Frank Serpico.

― George 'the Animal' Steele, Monday, 6 March 2006 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

There was good stuff on Central America. I'll get out the back issues sometime in the next year and get back to you.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 6 March 2006 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

man, i forgot all about that aids chick in spin. crazy.

i really liked spin back then. a lot.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 6 March 2006 23:23 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.