A Greek Tragedy

The Lord of Truth alerts us to a budding controversy triggered by Oliver Stone's new movie Alexander, which apparently has the Greek people somewhat aggrieved...

A group of Greek lawyers are threatening to sue Warner Bros. film studios and Oliver Stone, director of the widely anticipated film "Alexander," for suggesting Alexander the Great was bisexual.

The lawyers have already sent an extrajudicial note to the studio and director demanding they include a reference in the title credits saying his movie is a fictional tale and not based on official documents of the life of the Macedonian ruler.

"We are not saying that we are against gays but we are saying that the production company should make it clear to the audience that this film is pure fiction and not a true depiction of the life of Alexander," Yannis Varnakos, who spearheads the campaign by 25 lawyers, told Reuters on Friday.

Stone was quoted on the MSNBC.com Web Site as telling the upcoming edition of Playboy magazine that the film's depiction of Alexander could offend some.

"We go into his bisexuality. It may offend some people, but sexuality in those days was a different thing," he was quoted as saying.

...One of the greatest military leaders of all time, Alexander, who was never defeated in battle, conquered about 90 percent of the then-known world before his mysterious death at the age of 32, building an empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to Afghanistan.

Varnakaos said as Stone has the right to freely express himself, the audience should have the right to know.

"We cannot come out and say that (former U.S.) President John F. Kennedy was a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and so Warner cannot come out and say Alexander was gay," Varnakos said.

Guys, this is Oliver Stone. The audience knows it's pure fiction. I'm pretty sure that the cut scenes for the movie JFK have a scene where Kennedy is lining up at the 2-guard for the Lakers, while Lee Harvey Oswald coaches the Celtics and Wilt Chamberlain is a CIA operative. The new movie's just as historically accurate -- granted, having Alexander killed by a massive conspiracy involving Richard Nixon is a stretch, but records from that era are spotty at best.