RICE TO TELL ‘TRUTH’ OF HART AFFAIR IN TV MOVIE, ABC SAYS

In a TV movie for ABC, Donna Rice will reveal whether she slept with former presidential candidate Gary Hart, network officials said Monday.

“Yes, she will reveal in the movie what she did with Gary Hart,” Ted Harbert, vice president of motion pictures, said at a news conference in Redondo Beach during ABC’s portion of the annual summer gathering of TV reporters and critics from newspapers throughout the country.

Although Rice refused to tell ABC’s Barbara Walters in a televised interview whether she had slept with Hart, her agreement to tell the network the truth was requisite to ABC’s committing to broadcast the movie, Harbert said.

She has not yet provided the answer to the sensitive question of the extent of her involvement with Hart, ABC said. Revelations about the time they spent together earlier this year--in particular a weekend in Washington when Hart’s wife was out of town--forced the former Colorado senator to withdraw from the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Regardless of what Rice says, however, Harbert said the movie “will not go behind closed doors” with any graphic depictions. “That’s their business,” he said.

ABC’s agreement with Rice is oral at the moment, but Harbert said that the appropriate legal papers will be signed within the next several days. The movie will be produced by New World Television and will air next spring.

Harbert said that the question of Rice, an aspiring actress, playing herself in the film had not been discussed, but the “likelihood is small,” he said. He expressed doubt that Rice had the acting skills to carry the film herself. He added that an actor would portray Hart, but the role has not yet been cast.

Harbert said that Rice, who plans to write her autobiography soon, did not approach ABC with the idea of selling her story. Rather, the idea had come from within: “Donna Rice is friends with a guy who used to work for ABC,” Harbert said (a comment that drew a derisive chuckle or two from his audience).

The friend, Harbert hastened to explain, once worked in ABC’s casting department (louder derisive chuckles), and brought the possibility to the attention of the network.

ABC will not have to get permission from Hart to do the story, because he is a public figure, Harbert said. But the network will have to negotiate with some of Rice’s friends and family members for permission to include them in the movie.

Harbert justified the value of ABC pursuing the Rice story by saying that her life style is a metaphor for that of many single men and women who lead responsible working lives but “like to go out and have a good time on the weekends.”

Harbert added that, although Rice fell in with a jet-set crowd, her involvement with Hart was in some ways a common phenomenon that just happened to involve a public figure. “She didn’t intend to get herself into this mess,” he said, adding that the movie would fully explore what happens to an ordinary person “who wakes up one morning and finds her picture on the cover of People magazine.”