BY MARY ALICE KELLOGG

•, On the eve of a TV-movie about her life, 's widow says, 1in tired of carrying the burden.'

IT*S PERFECT MOVIE .TERIAL: A young to bear the pariah mark of "assassin's Russian girl meets an American in Mos- wife" while trying to make some sense of cow, marries him after a whirlwind court- her life in the aftermath. This week, NBC ship, and comes to America Once here, airs "Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey knowing no English, isolated by an in- Oswald." It is Marina's story, the one she creasingly abusive husband, living in a has waited 30 years to tell. . . . strange city with two young daughters, Marina Oswald Porter, who today lives she sees her world fall apart one horrific quietly in a suburb of , had resisted morning as her husband is accused of as- previous overtures to portray her. For sassinating the President of the United executive producer Bernard Sofronski States. He himself is murdered days later. ("Alex Haley's Queen"), gaining her confi- Of all the stories surrounding the assas- dence was a delicate, two-year endeavor. sination of John F. Kennedy, Of all the people I've ever

. . . • • • that of Marina Oswald, wife met, she's the one person . . • • ' of Lee Harvey Oswald, is one who shouldn't trust any- , •. of the more poignant and one," Sofronski says. "She • • • . • .• .• • untold footnotes: an inno- looks like the weight of the cent swept into history, ma- A world is on her back. Her nipulated by everyone from I- whole life changed on Nov. the to 22, 1963. She's been reliv- the FBI to assassination ing that day every day, ever theorists, a mother forced since." • "Fata1 Decepticm: Mrs. Lee Why relive it again now, Harvey Oswald" airs Nov. 15 and on network television? at 9 PALIET =NBC "For awhile, the media were

36 TV GUIDE NOVEMBER 13. 10P3

. . • . • . . plain my position." Her posi- tion now is one of disagreement with the Warren Commission. "I do believe that the conspira- cy existed and that there was a coverup," she says. "I do be- lieve with all my heart now that he was set up." "Fatal Deception" covers Marina and Lee's courtship, their marriage, the assassina- tion, and its effects on her and her family from Marina's point of view, ending in 1978 when Marina and her two daughters visit a Dallas memorial on the 15th anniversary of the as.sas- sination. "It's not a laugh-a-min- ute story," says Marina's por- trayer, Helena Bonham Carter, a British actress ("A Room with a View," "[-towards End") who ti wasn't yet born when JFK was assassinated. "She's had a que experience," Bonham Car- ter adds. "She didn't know what was going on The chal- lenge was to play it with innocence and not a sense of doom." For her humane, Manna Oswald riveting performance, and daughter Bonham Carter view- June (right) at the funeral of ed archival tape of Lee Harvey Marina and worked Oswald (below with a speech coach left) in 1963 I on a heavy Russian Helena Bonham accent Meeting Ma- Carter (above) as rina, who consulted Manna in NBC's "Fatal Deception ' on the film project, came later, on the set in a Moscow. It was only Marina's second trip careful when they talked about Lee: They back since 1962, and she and Bonham Car- said 'alleged assassin,' " says Marina "But ter were understandably nervous. they got sloppier and began talking about "I felt tacky meeting her," the actress the killer, the assassin.' When I spoke says, "because this kind of project is out in 1988 and said that I didn't believe bound to simplify her life." At first, Mari- we had been told the truth, nothing hap- na was reserved, caught up in the hubbub pened. So, out of desperation, I thought of being on a movie set for the rust time, that the movie would be my chance to ex- saying only that Bonham Carter was 'far

27 but no veto. "We sent Marina the script because she had to feel comfortable with it," says So- 3 fronski. She liked some things, but objected to others, "I said, let's skip the intimate scenes," Marina says. The intimate scenes stayed. What will "Fatal Deception" add to the avalanche of images, perspectives, conspiracy theo- ries, and information surround- ing the assassination? "The mov- ie will point more guns to ask what are we hiding from, why not release the information," Helena Bonham Carter (left) and Manna Oswald Porter says Sofronski. In August, the share a moment on The set of "Fatal Deception government released nearly one too pretty" to play her. But during the Mos- million pages of assassination-related doc- cow shoot, Marina and Bonham Carter uments; perhaps twice that much still re- went out in the evenings, listened to mu- mains classified. The producers and Ma- sic, and bonded. "She was so glad to come rina maintain that until every shred of back to Russia, after so long away," says information is made public, the theories Bonham Carter. "She knew she could trust will not go away; the questions will con- us because the story was very sympathetic tinue to multiply. to her life." No one wants to know all the truth The producers, aware of the delicacy more than Marina "I didn't ask to be an of the situation, took pains in Moscow to historical figure, but if I must, I would shield Marina from Frank Whaley, the ac- like to be part of an honest history," Ma- tor who gives an uncanny and powerful rina/Helena says at the end of the movie. performance as Lee Harvey Oswald. Even- It is a history that is still being written. It tually she and Whaley did open a dialogue. is The Story That Will Not Go Away. "Watching people playing you is unreal," "I wish it was over a long time ago," Marina says. "From a distance, in Mos- says Marina "There should have been a cow, when I saw this young couple [Whal- trial to find him honestly guilty or inno- ey and Bonham Carter), for a moment it cent, and we'd go on with our life." was like a pain in my heart. Is that me, a The events of 30 years ago have taken little girl, working there? From a distance, their toll on Marina "This big burden on 1".■..!,;0:7.t ■••:(. 4,0401kttVt Helena reminded me of me." my shoulders lingers and lingers. I'm tired Today's Marina, Bonham Carter says, of carrying on. I don't want to be Marina is far from the bewildered deer-caught-in- Oswald forever. I don't want to live in the headlights that America saw in the '60s past constantly. Now, in the autumn of my "She's very witty and strong-minded. She life, I would like to find some few years of has a great lust for life. I was struck by peace to live, plant flowers, raise children, her humane perception of it all; she has a and not worry about anything else. This wide outlook, and she's not bitter." is only a human desire. I could live with a Happily remarried for more than two guilty verdict if that's honestly what I be- don't" MI decades, Marina has kept a low profile. lieve in. But I simply When she sold the producers the rights to Mary Alice Kellogg is a writer and editor her story, she retained consulting rights based in New York TV GUIDE NOVEMBER 13, 1903 28