A Conflict-of-Interest Flag Snags Gary Franklin’s Photo Exhibition

A conflict-of-interest flap over the funding of a planned exhibition of KABC-TV film critic Gary Franklin’s Hollywood photographs has sent the New York show back to the drawing board.

The exhibition was scheduled for spring at the International Center of Photography’s new galleries in midtown Manhattan, but now it is “under discussion,” according to Willis Hartshorn, the center’s director of exhibitions.

In mid-July, the center sent letters soliciting financial support for Franklin’s exhibition from studio chiefs and other Hollywood executives. The International Center of Photography was trying to create a committee of sponsors to cover the cost of $69,000 for the show, including production, posters, free-distribution brochures, a preview, members’ receptions and promotion, according to the letters.

Sponsors would receive “prominent acknowledgement in all exhibition and publicity materials and will have the opportunity to hold a private reception in ICP’s galleries,” the letters state.

Doesn’t the solicitation present a potential conflict of interest for studios whose films Franklin reviews on KABC-TV, which operates in the nation’s No. 2 television market? “You are asking the right question,” Hartshorn said. He added that none of the studios had responded to the request.

The effort to get studio backing for the show has been called off because center administrators had second thoughts about creating a perceived conflict of interest. The center is sending out a second letter telling potential donors that the institution has dropped its fund-raising campaign for the Franklin show, he said.

Franklin said he had had nothing to do with the fund-raising effort. He said he was so shocked when he received a copy of the solicitation that he decided to withdraw from the show and to run an ad in Daily Variety announcing the withdrawal and apologizing to those who had been solicited.

“I’ve never had my ethics questioned and I don’t like it,” Franklin said, adding that he didn’t want a controversy to threaten his contract with KABC. He said he withdrew the trade-paper ad when the International Center of Photography agreed to call off the Hollywood campaign.

Hartshorn said the center would pursue “other routes of funding,” but Franklin said he didn’t know if plans for the exhibition would be revived.

As originally publicized, the show was titled “All 10’s: Gary Franklin’s Hollywood”--a title that appeared to be supplying a superlative rating for the reviewer’s first museum show. (Franklin’s trademark is the “Franklin scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best.”) Franklin denied any responsibility for the title.