Regularly solicited by the Hollywood industry, the various organizations of the American government willingly lend their assistance, especially if it highlights their action. But everything is obviously not without compensation…
It is obviously very common for the Hollywood industry to solicit various entities of the American government to provide assistance in the production of films and/or television series; whether for practical questions inherent to filming authorizations, the solicitation of its expertise on specific subjects… NASA, for example, regularly offers its valuable assistance to Hollywood productions.
The Department of Defense also, otherwise known as DOD, has an old and long tradition of cooperation with Hollywood in this context – almost 100 years – to the point of having a liaison office specially dedicated to this.
The same goes for the CIA, which also has a liaison office in Hollywood to study the various requests from the Entertainment industry.
But this help does not come without compensation. For example, a right to review the script…
My stepfather and I censored by the CIA
The first part released in 2001 in a saga which nevertheless lost a lot of flavor over the episodes, the romantic comedy My Father-in-Law and I was a resounding success at the worldwide Box Office, with more than $330 million under the counter.
The (mis)adventures of Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) facing his father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert de Niro), a former CIA agent, provoked good laughs from the spectators. On the other hand, on the side of the CIA, which had opened a liaison office in 1996 in Hollywood, the smile was slightly tense… At least when reading the original script.
In it, a scene was supposed to show Greg Focker coming across CIA torture manuals in the possession of his father-in-law. Little memories of a more or less bygone era… The agency therefore asked that this sequence be modified. In the film, Greg Focker now only finds photos showing Robert de Niro with international personalities. It is immediately much less problematic and above all completely harmless.
For the record, it turns out that Chase Brandon, the CIA liaison officer who made this reservation, is cousin of a certain… Tommy Lee Jones. The world is decidedly small and sometimes well made.