Scandalous: The Story of the National Enquirer (8/10)

by Tony Medley

96 minutes.

NR.

The genesis of the National Equirer was Generoso Pope allegedly a “made man” (meaning he killed somone) in the Mafia. He ran the Italian newspaper in NY and was apparently very influential among the Italian populous. His son, Gene Pope, Jr., wanted to emulate his father so bought a New York paper, with money supplied by Mafia chieftain Frank Costello, renamed to The National Enquirer and moved its headquarters to Florida.

He made the paper insanely successful as a tabloid sold in supermarkets and filled the paper with “inquiring” journalists who dug up the dirt on celebrities. This is a fascinating documentary about what was at one time a hugely popular paper.

Directed by Mark Landsman, this film tells of many of its sensational stories. For example, journalist Barbara Sternig tells of getting the goods on Bill Cosby and writing a story about is mistress in Las Vegas. At the time Cosby was starring in his squeaky clean sitcom. When she presented the story for publication, Iain Calder, the Executive Editor, said she had to call Cosby. She had been on the set and knew all the actors and reluctantly called him. Cosby politely asked for the name and number of her executive editor. She gave it to him and he hung up. He called Calder, who killed the story in return for several sit down interviews with Cosby on the condition that the interviewer not be Sternig. She said that killed her relationship with the cast. Calder said he had to make the decision as to what his readers wanted to know.

Writer Malcolm Balfour, who was a Reuters journalist before joining the NE staff, regales with tales of the questionable journalistic ethics used by him and others in gathering stories.

Directed by Mark Landsman, a plethora of writers and editors are interviewed, including writers Ken Auletta and Carl Bernstein (neither of whom wrote for NE), and NE editors Iain Calder and Steve Coz (who became Executive Editor after Pope died), among many others, along with lots of archival films. The film goes into detail about the NE’s groundbreaking coverage of several cases, including Donna Rice-Gary Hart affair and the OJ Simpson case where the NE found the smoking gun that no one else in the media did. NE led the nation in reporting on it. One report was while the LA Times had 4 reporters on it, the NE had 20. Found pictures of OJ wearing the Bruno Mali shoes that left a print at the murder scene but OJ said he’d never wear “those ugly ass shoes.” It was the main evidence in the civil trial that awarded the Goldman family $25 million against OJ.

David Pecker bought the paper and took over in 1999, running it until he sold it in 2019.