STORIES about Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan's alleged double life have been circulating for years.
Now the Israeli-born businessman behind hits such as Pretty Woman,
Fight Club and LA Confidential has finally made a stunning admission -
for years he served as an Israeli spy, buying arms on its behalf and
boosting its alleged nuclear program.
In a far-reaching interview
aired on Monday with Israel's Channel 2 TV's flagship investigative
program Uvda, Milchan detailed a series of clandestine affairs in which
he was involved and particularly how he helped purchase technologies
Israel allegedly needed to operate nuclear bombs.
"I did it for my
country and I'm proud of it," said Milchan, who ran a successful
fertiliser company in Israel before making it big in Hollywood.
Even there, he says he continued with his clandestine work while maintaining close ties with Israel's leadership.
According to an unauthorised biography published two years ago,
Milchan worked for Israel's now-defunct Bureau of Scientific Relations,
known as Lekem, which worked to obtain information for secret defence
programs. The bureau was disbanded in 1987 after it was implicated in
the spying affair for which Jonathan Pollard, a civilian intelligence
analyst for the US Navy, was sentenced to life in prison.
Milchan also says other big Hollywood names were connected to his covert affairs.
"When
I came to Hollywood I detached myself completely from my physical
activities to dedicate myself to what I really wanted - filmmaking," he
said. "(But) sometimes it gets mixed up."
The 68-year-old Milchan
owns New Regency Films and has produced more than 120 movies since the
1970s, working closely with directors such as Martin Scorsese, Roman
Polanski, Sergio Leone and Oliver Stone. He forged an especially close
relationship with Robert De Niro, who along with actors Russell Crowe
and Ben Affleck, is featured in Uvda's broadcast.
"I had heard but
I wasn't sure," De Niro said, of Milchan's activities. "I did ask him
once and he told me that he was an Israeli and of course he would do
these things for his country."
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