If they really were friends, you'd think Rose would have known the guy was alive and well. Wouldn't you?
NEW YORK (AP) -- Filmmaker George Butler wants his friends to
know he's very much alive, despite a premature obituary on "The
Charlie Rose Show" this week.
During Rose's annual New Year's Eve tribute on PBS to notable
figures who died during the year, he included Butler, whose 1977 film
"Pumping Iron" featured a then-unknown bodybuilder named Arnold
Schwarzenegger. The screen even flashed a Butler tombstone,
1943-2008.
The PBS show had confused him with another George Butler, a
longtime jazz record executive who signed Wynton Marsalis, who died
April 9.
What's odd about the mistake is that Rose and Butler are old
friends through Rose's first wife, meeting shortly after they
graduated from college in North Carolina.
Butler, who lives in Holderness, N.H. and is making a film on
Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, didn't see his obit but learned
about it when a fellow filmmaker called. He found out that some
friends in New York were even planning a wake.
"I am bemused," he said. "Charlie did a great job in
retracting the huge error. Still, it's very disconcerting."
At least he was in good company, Butler said, noting that he was
featured with Paul Newman, Tim Russert and William F. Buckley. A
contrite Rose was on the phone with him three times on New Year's
Day to apologize, he said.
Rose, who did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking
comment, apologized at the opening of Thursday's show.
"The George Butler who is my friend is alive and well and
living in New Hampshire," Rose said. "We apologize to him and his
friends, and look forward to having him on the program in the new
year."
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 01-02-09 1636EST