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Actor Duvall Slams Spielberg Over Cuba Trip
Wed January 7, 2004 06:39 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Robert Duvall probably won't be making
any movies for DreamWorks any time soon.
In a CBS "60 Minutes II" interview set for broadcast on Wednesday, the
Oscar-winning performer sharply criticized filmmaker and DreamWorks
SKG studio co-founder Steven Spielberg for visiting Cuba in November
2002.

"Spielberg went down there recently and said, 'The best seven hours I
ever spent was actually with Fidel Castro.' Now, what I want to ask
him, ... 'Would you consider building a little annex on the Holocaust
museum, or at least across the street, to honor the dead Cubans that
Castro killed.' That's very presumptuous of him to go there," Duvall
told Charlie Rose, according to excerpts of the interview released by
CBS.

The actor, who won an Academy Award for his role in the 1983 film
"Tender Mercies," added, "I'll never work at DreamWorks again, but I
don't care about working there anyway."

Spielberg's spokesman, Marvin Levy, responded by issuing a statement
saying the remark Duvall attributed to the director about his meeting
with Castro is "totally false."

"He never said it, or anything like it," Levy said, adding Spielberg's
trip to the Communist-ruled island had been authorized as a cultural
exchange by the U.S. government.

Spielberg spent four days in Cuba, launching a showcase of eight of
his movies, meeting with Cuban filmmakers and paying visits to
Havana's largest synagogue and a memorial to Holocaust victims at the
city's Jewish cemetery.

The Oscar-winning director of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's
List" also dined with Fidel Castro, spending about eight hours with
the Cuban leader discussing art, politics and history.

During his trip, Spielberg made headlines by calling for an end to the
40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, saying it was time to
bury old grudges from the Cold War and expand interactions between
Americans and Cubans.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=peopleNews&storyID=4090151