20 Established 1961 Thursday, June 21, 2018 Lifestyle Features ‘The Catcher was a Spy’: ’s double life as secret agent

aseball pro Moe Berg wasn’t much of a his material was used to plan the first US aeri- Dawidoff’s bestseller of the same name, the star in the diamond but he was an MVP al attack on Japan, in 1942. movie boasts a star-studded support cast that Bin the theater of war, risking his life This has never been confirmed, but the includes Guy Pearce, Sienna Miller, Jeff behind enemy lines as an Allied spy. Berg OSS was impressed enough to send him on Daniels, Mark Strong and Tom Wilkinson. traded in his catcher’s mitt for a trench coat courses in lock-picking, pyrotechnics and Some filming took place at Fenway Park, and a high-stakes mission to monitor-and killing. The agency arranged for Berg to home of the , but most scenes assassinate, if necessary-the Nazis’ chief attend a Zurich lecture by Werner Heisenberg, were shot over 32 winter days in Czech nuclear scientist. His amazing story is drama- the Nobel Prize-winning quantum physicist in Republic capital Prague. Berg left the CIA in tized in the stranger-than-fiction espionage charge of Nazi attempts to create an atom 1954 and never worked again, beginning a thriller “The Catcher Was a Spy,” starring Paul bomb, to assess how close they were. He nomadic existence and living on the hospitali- Rudd, Paul Giamatti and a host of other big arrived with a gun in one pocket and a ty of friends and family. He died at the age of names, and opening in US theaters on Friday. cyanide pill in the other, with instructions to 70 and remains the only major-league player “This is a weird World War II story that no assassinate Heisenberg if the scientist whose baseball card is on display at the head- one really knows about,” director Ben Lewin appeared to be on the cusp of a break- quarters of the CIA. (“The Sessions”) told a preview audience in through. Berg got no such impression and lat- Rudd told the Internet Movie Database at Santa Monica, southern California, earlier this er decided against an assassination attempt the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where the month. “You unpeel the onion and it’s more during their one and only meeting, as they movie premiered in January, that there were and more puzzling and fascinating.” A secre- walked in the direction of Heisenberg’s hotel still many unanswered questions about Berg. tive and eccentric man with a steel-trap intel- In this file photo actors Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd attend the ‘The Catcher Was A Spy’ Premiere after a social event. “This is an interesting spy story in that it’s lect, Berg was born in Harlem, New York, in during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at The Marc Theatre in Park City, Utah. — AFP very cerebral, it’s not James Bond,” he said. “A 1902 to a pharmacist and a housewife. ‘Enigmatic’ lot of the action is what’s going on in people’s He studied at Princeton, where he was including the Boston Red Sox and earning a and . Berg put on a kimono and “There was a real meeting between Berg minds.”— AFP notorious for his mastery of a reputed 12 law degree on the side from Columbia sneaked onto a hospital rooftop to film the and Heisenberg. Nobody really knows what modern and ancient languages, often practic- University. harbor and Navy shipyards. Years later, after happened or what was said,” Lewin said. ing Sanskrit from behind home plate during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, he showed his “People who were given accounts of that training sessions. Berg played shortstop in Assassination mission footage to President Franklin Roosevelt’s meeting, pretty much like us, made up the the minor and major leagues before switching His spy career started on a 1934 goodwill Office of Strategic Services, which later content. What we know is that both men to catcher, appearing for several top teams baseball tour in Tokyo alongside became the CIA. Historians say Berg believed walked away alive.” Based on Nicholas

Anger mounts in Birthplace of singer, activist Hollywood over Fox Nina Simone to be preserved immigration coverage he dilapidated wooden cottage in North Carolina odern Family” co-creator Steve that was the birthplace of singer and civil rights Levitan became Tuesday the latest Tactivist Nina Simone now has the protection of the “M National Trust for Historic Preservation. The trust said in a in a string of Hollywood figures berating Fox over its news division’s coverage, news release Tuesday that it will develop and find a new announcing he was quitting the entertainment use for the house in Tryon where Simone was born in 1933. giant. Much of the anger has centered around Fox Last year, four African-American artists purchased the News’s reporting of US President Donald Trump’s home. National Trust President and Chief Executive move to forcibly separate migrant children from Officer Stephanie Meeks says the trust will work with the their parents at the southern border, which some home’s new owners and the community to honor Simone’s see as deliberately misleading. contributions to society and to “inspire new generations of Levitan tweeted that the cable station’s “23- artists and activists.” The three-room, 660-square-foot hour-a-day support” of the gun lobby, conserva- (60-square-meter) home went on the market in 2016. tive conspiracy theories and President Donald Simone’s original name was Eunice Waymon. She died in Trump’s falsehoods were “harder to swallow every 2003 at the age of 70. — AP day as I drive onto that lot to make a show about inclusion.” “I look forward to seeing #ModernFamily through to the end and then, sale In this June 27, 1985, file or no sale, setting up shop elsewhere,” he said. photo, Nina Simone performs Levitan, who won five consecutive Emmy Awards In this Dec 5,1968 file photo shows jazz singer Nina Simone at Avery Fisher Hall in New for the long-running ABC sitcom, had already in London. York. — AP photos announced that next year’s 10th season would be the last, with his 20th Century Fox Television con- tract due to expire. Fox News-which didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment-is often criticized for its coverage, but the reverberations are rarely felt in the corridors of parent company 21st Century Fox. On Monday, Levitan publicly supported actor and filmmaker Seth MacFarlane’s comment that he was “embarrassed” to work for Fox. Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham has come in for particularly vocif- erous criticism after she described detention cen- ters holding 2,000 immigrant children at the southern border as “essentially summer camps.” Both Ingraham and fellow anchor Sean Hannity-seen as one of Trump’s closest unofficial aides-have been hit by advertiser boycotts. “Ghostbusters” and “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig, who made “Spy” and “The Heat” for the stu- dio, also criticized the news coverage. —AFP

In this handout photo made available by Nancy Pierce shows the interior room of the home of In this handout photo made available by Nancy Pierce shows the birthplace of jazz singer jazz singer Nina Simone in Tryon, NC. Nina Simone in Tryon, NC. Artist buried for three days Fans grieve as detectives search under busy Australian road for XXXTentacion’s killers n artist has emerged from three lence of 19th century British colonialism in days entombed in a steel box under Australia”, they added. Parr, who had been or hours, the fans came in a steady stream could look at his face and smile and he was just ing out that he had come home to perform in an Aa busy Australian road in a perform- buried with only a small light, clambered to mourn and pay their respects at the a normal kid like us ... His style is almost hard to upcoming charity show. ance billed as a tribute to victims of totali- out of his prison on a ladder late Sunday Fspot where rapper XXXTentacion was explain. He had an angry tone. He meant every- tarian violence. Mike Parr, 73, fasted dur- after heavy machinery carefully removed gunned down, some leaving behind expressions thing he said, even the most simplistic words. It Pot smoke ing his time underground, with oxygen the asphalt that had sealed him in. He exit- of sympathy along a fence and on the sidewalk. just came off his tongue like nothing. He was “He had all these mistakes that could have pumped into the 1.7-metre (5.5-foot) by ed without saying a word or acknowledg- No arrests have been announced in the shooting speaking his mind.” wound up defining him but he didn’t let that 2.2-metre container to keep him alive as ing a crowd that had gathered in the rain. of the 20-year-old rapper, who Broward County Gavin said unlike other rappers whose songs happen,” Lang said. “That is why he is connect- traffic drove on overhead. He had bedding, He is expected to detail his experience in a sheriff’s officials say was ambushed by two sus- emphasize buying expensive merchandise, ing to all these kids because these kids are water, a waste bucket, a sketchpad and public forum yesterday. “He is an pects as he left an upscale motor sports dealer- XXXTentacion rapped about his emotions. “X going through a really sad time, a sad world. He pencils for the stunt in Hobart, part of endurance performance artist and he’s ship Monday afternoon in his electric BMW. His talked about how he felt instead of materialistic taught them how to cope.” In Los Angeles, hun- Tasmania state’s annual Dark Mofo festival, been doing this for many years, so his attorney, David Bogenschutz, said investigators things like owning this car, this car, this house, dreds of fans turned Melrose Avenue into a which celebrates darkness through large- body is quite used to doing this,” Dark told him the 20-year-old rapper, who pro- this house,” Gavin said. Brandon Lang, a 29- mosh pit in celebration and mourning of scale public art, food, film and music. Mofo curator Jarrod Rawlins told nounced his stage name “Ex Ex Ex ten-ta-see- year-old magazine owner, said XXXTentacion XXXTentacion late Tuesday night. In an “The anxiety of the artist’s disappear- reporters.—AFP YAWN,” had visited a bank shortly before the may have had an angry persona in his perform- impromptu memorial outside a Hollywood bike ance is the point of the piece,” organizers shooting and possibly withdrew cash to buy a ance, but in reality he “did good things,” point- shop, fans filling the street and dancing on said. It was also an attempt to highlight motorcycle. rooftops shouted along with his songs beneath “the shadow cast by the genocidal vio- That brought a parade of mourners Tuesday a cloud of pot smoke. to the spot behind Riva Motorsports where A big painted sign in the shop window read XXXTentacion was gunned down, not far from RIP XXX followed by hearts. Police closed off where he grew up in Lauderhill. They placed the street and let the party grow to nearly 500 candles, flowers and teddy bears on the side- people before calling for the crowd to clear out. walk near where the rapper known by his fans The entertainer, who sported dreadlocks and simply as “X? was shot. They decorated 100 facial tattoos, was a rising star. He notched a yards (91 meters) of sidewalk with chalk art No. 1 album in March with his sophomore effort including messages of sympathy and loss such “?? and had a top 10 hit with “Sad!” but was as “Feel for you XXX” and “4evr Young.” facing trial on charges that he beat up his preg- Myles O’Hara, 17, and Aaron Gavin, 20, sat nant girlfriend. His brief career was marked by on the curb, solemnly staring at the ground, controversy. In 2016, he was arrested on mostly ignoring the people who moved past. charges including home invasion for a 2015 inci- They said they admired XXXTentacion because dent, and less than a month later was jailed on he was a local kid who rose from rough circum- charges that he attacked his girlfriend, who was stances and was making a positive contribution. pregnant at the time. Later, he faced more “He had some legal allegations before, but the A fan rap singer XXXTentacion pauses by a memo- charges including witness tampering.—AP last year he had only been a positive influence rial, Tuesday outside Riva Motorsports in Deerfield This handout photo shows performance artist Mike Parr, 73, sitting in a coffin-like steel box on people’s lives, making hit Billboard songs,” Beach, Fla, where the troubled rapper-singer was as he is entombed under a busy road in Hobart, Tasmania. — AFP O’Hara said. “He has been a kind person. You killed the day before. — AP