03/18/2002 "Film boss defends A Beautiful Mind "

Film boss defends A Beautiful Mind

The boss of Universal Pictures has hit back at criticism of A Beautiful Mind.

The Russell Crowe film has come under fire for shying away from John Forbes Nash's homosexuality.

Stacey Snider says she deplores the "unethical tactics" used by rivals in this year's Oscars contest.

"There's been a shocking absence of self-restraint," Snider tells www.hollywoodreporter.com

"Lines that should be clear to all of us have recklessly been crossed. Filmmakers who have done honest work that was never engineered to win an award now are having to defend their intentions."

"I've never met John Nash. But a 73-year-old man who has gone through hell and who agreed to entrust us with his life shouldn't have to go through these attacks.

"We never set out to sugarcoat his life, but I don't think it's a misrepresentation of that life to have concentrated on the facts that try to get to the essence of his life."

Crowe admits the film plays down hints of homosexuality which are included in the book it's based on. He says "a certain adventurousness in his sexuality" is suggested in Sylvia Nasar's biography of Nash.

Snider won't say where she suspects the attacks might have started from, but she did say she has spoken to rival studio executives, encouraging them not to launch attacks on each other's films.

"I have chosen to try to appeal to our competitors on a personal level, to urge them not to tumble down this moral slope," she said.