‘War’ Director Denies Trauma Allegation

Producer-director Dan Curtis on Friday denied an allegation that he had allowed a child to be traumatized during the filming of his ABC miniseries “War and Remembrance.” He called the charge “very malicious” and said he was considering legal action.

“I don’t know if I want to keep this thing alive. But I’ll think about it,” Curtis told The Times.

“Entertainment Tonight” reported Thursday that about 70 of Curtis’ crew members signed a memo on Feb. 14, 1986, while on location in Yugoslavia, criticizing Curtis for letting a 5-year-old Yugoslavian boy be hanged from his heels during a scene. They claimed the child became very upset and started crying hysterically.

Curtis, acknowledging he received the memo, angrily refuted this assertion: “One thing is for sure: No child was abused or ever will be abused on any one of my sets. . . . At all times on the set, the child’s nurse and guardian were present. The child was never abused. What we’re talking about here is a cranky kid.”