Like father, like son?
Director Oliver Stone’s son, Sean Stone, made headlines last week when he announced he had converted to Islam while making a film in Iran. Now, the young Stone is doing some pretty good spin for that country’s leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on “The O’Reilly Factor”:
The 27-year-old Stone announced last week that he had converted to Islam, thus the reason for his invitation to appear on Bill O’Reilly’s top-rated cable news program….
“Your association with Iran is interesting, since that country is an enemy to America,” O’Reilly says, as Stone smiles as if he expects to be grilled on the topic.
“Every time I had these conversations, I was very clear in saying, ‘you know, let’s stop with this down-with-America nonsense,'” Stone answers. “It really helped for the American image, frankly, by my being there.”
“You can be seen as somebody who’s being used, because, you know, you come from a family that’s very well known,” O’Reilly tells Stone.
“That could be,” Stone says. “I mean, with Ahmadinejad, he’s a little bit misunderstood because there are many factions in that country and he said some sensational things.”
“Look, look,” O’Reilly interrupts. “The one thing he said that’s undeniable was, he said that the Holocaust never happened. And once you get into that kind of fringe, lunatic assessment — all right — your father’s Jewish, I mean, come on.”
Stone, though, says Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust is also misunderstood. The Iranian president doesn’t mean the Holocaust didn’t happen, he means that it’s irrelevant to present-day politics, according to Stone.
“Why should it influence Israeli policy in regards to the Palestinians, in regards to the Middle East? That’s always been his point on that matter,” Stone says. “There’s no room for Holocaust denial, of course, I would never agree with that. But I just think that it’s simplistic to say that he’s a fanatic.”
O’Reilly asks: “You okay with Iran having a nuclear weapon?”
“I am, because it’s a Republic and there are factions. And it’s very much like this country. There’s a lot of unrest.
Oliver Stone is renowned for speaking on behalf of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The Oscar winner even made a documentary, “Comandante,” with a decidedly pro-Castro bent. In 2010, the elder Stone shot “South of the Border,” a film that painted Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, an ally of Iran’s leader, in a mostly glowing light.
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