Intelligence Activity in Hollywood: Remembering the “Agency” in CIA

[Christopher O'Brien]

[The week after Halloween brings out the topic of "spooks." Here's an excellent, well-researched article about the CIA's history of involvement in Hollywood,
but first some interesting comments from Ben Affleck about the CIA and Hollywood --chris]

Ben Affleck: "Hollywood is full of CIA agents"
By Robbie Graham

Article HERE @: Silver Screen Saucers
Discussing his new film Argo this week, Ben Affleck has stated that Hollywood is likely teeming with CIA operatives. In a video interview with the actor, The Guardian's Catherine Shoard asks: "Are there many actors in Hollywood who also moonlight as agents do you think?" At this point, Affleck sits forward in his chair and laughs uncomfortably. He replies: "I think there are probably quite a few, yes. I think probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we just don't know it. And I wouldn't be surprised at all to discover that this was extremely common."

​

Shoard then asks: "Are you CIA?" To which Affleck responds, with a strained smile: "I am yes."

Obligatory laughter then follows from Shoard as Affleck adds: "And now you've blown my cover, so there goes my career, so I hope the directing thing better work out."

Argo is the true story of a CIA mission to rescue six Americans holed up in the Canadian embassy in Tehran during the hostage crisis of 1979. Affleck, who directs and stars in the film, is no stranger to working with the CIA. In 2002, he starred in the big screen version of Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears, which depicted the Agency as tracking down terrorists who detonate a nuclear weapon on US soil. For this movie, CIA director George Tenet gave Affleck a personal tour of the Agency’s Langley HQ. The actor also consulted with CIA analysts and worked closely with the Agency’s former Entertainment Liaison Chase Brandon, who served as the movie’s on-set advisor.

Affleck’s wife, Jennifer Garner, enjoyed an even cosier relationship with CIA as the star of the Agency-supported TV series Alias (2001 – 2006). Garner even starred unpaid in a CIA recruitment video in 2004.... Rest of Article HERE:

 

[Goggs Mackay]

The CIA is sometimes known as 'The Company'.
MI6 is sometimes know as 'The Firm'.

The CIA is involved in Hollywood.
MI6 has many fingers in the BBC.

CIA is far bigger, bolder and better funded than MI6 but I have to say (being a Brit) that James Bond is way cooler than any fictional CIA officer. Jack Ryan is pretty good and Clancy does write exceptionally good spy thrillers.

It's funny but in fiction, CIA, MI6, FSB (KGB) and The Mossad are used all the time but how many people could even name the equivalent agencies in Canada or Germany or France or Japan or China? These ones will forever be kind of cool to use in fiction probably because of the cold war I imagine?

 

[Wade]

The CIA is sometimes known as 'The Company'.
MI6 is sometimes know as 'The Firm'.

The CIA is involved in Hollywood.
MI6 has many fingers in the BBC.

CIA is far bigger, bolder and better funded than MI6 but I have to say (being a Brit) that James Bond is way cooler than any fictional CIA officer. Jack Ryan is pretty good and Clancy does write exceptionally good spy thrillers.

It's funny but in fiction, CIA, MI6, FSB (KGB) and The Mossad are used all the time but how many people could even name the equivalent agencies in Canada or Germany or France or Japan or China? These ones will forever be kind of cool to use in fiction probably because of the cold war I imagine?

I'd take jason bourne over both bond and ryan


Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nameless]

Went to see Argo. Its great. They really captured the 70s film nostalgia thing.

Also puts things into perspective that the CIA could set up a film production company and create a film to push an agenda as not being far fetched at all. The alphabetties using films and ideas from films , RAW used to joke about this sincerely. Don't forget it works both ways. They will fuck up a film or a book or an idea or a song or a musician if they think it will have an effect in controlling social consciousness. This is the real big game people and is probably the reason behind most if not all of what is now a redundantly defunct idea of Ufology.

 

[RenaissanceLady]

The CIA is sometimes known as 'The Company'.
MI6 is sometimes know as 'The Firm'.

The CIA is involved in Hollywood.
MI6 has many fingers in the BBC.

CIA is far bigger, bolder and better funded than MI6 but I have to say (being a Brit) that James Bond is way cooler than any fictional CIA officer. Jack Ryan is pretty good and Clancy does write exceptionally good spy thrillers.

It's funny but in fiction, CIA, MI6, FSB (KGB) and The Mossad are used all the time but how many people could even name the equivalent agencies in Canada or Germany or France or Japan or China? These ones will forever be kind of cool to use in fiction probably because of the cold war I imagine?

I know the that the West German agency was the Bundesnachrichtendienst (generally known as BND. I had to Google "BND" to get the full name as I had only ever heard it referred to as BND). I'm pretty sure they're still in charge of foreign intelligence of the reunified Germany.

Of course, the former East German agency was the Stassi. I still shudder when I read about how husbands and wives spied on each other for the Stassi. Such is the politics of paranoia.

France has several different agencies and I don't know which one is the equivalent of the CIA. Seriously, not even a clue. I can't even remember reading about a French version of the CIA. All I've ever heard is that they have several different agencies, including one for military, one for external affairs...

I have no idea what replaced the KGB once the USSR crumbled. I could Google it.

Does Canada even have or need a foreign intelligence agency? Seriously. They barely even have a military and I would imagine would get any necessary intel from the U.S., especially as we have an open border with them.

 

[Randall]

Does Canada even have or need a foreign intelligence agency? Seriously. They barely even have a military and I would imagine would get any necessary intel from the U.S., especially as we have an open border with them.

Do we have a military in Canada? Well ... I've heard some rumors, but the base that used be across from my house is now a native casino. I think they have a few guns on the reserve, but mostly they just gamble and fly remote controlled model airplanes. I think the government still runs propaganda ads about the war of 1812 ... talk about living off past glories. I actually find those ads kind of rude and associate them with the British Empire ... not Canada. And I celebrate our independence and our alliance with our American friends. Personally I'd be fine if we could just restructure North America into a whole new union and dump both of the lousy governments we have now ( there we go ... I'm on a watch list for sure now ). I also really don't like some of the stuff I see going on at our borders. We have this show called Canadian Border Police and it really makes us look like ( insert choice content here ) sometimes. I just want to apologize so bad sometimes for Canadians behaving badly. We do have an intelligence service though ... two of them actually ...

 

[RenaissanceLady]

Do we have a military in Canada? Well ... I've heard some rumors, but the base that used be across from my house is now a native casino. I think they have a few guns on the reserve, but mostly they just gamble and fly remote controlled model airplanes. I think the government still runs propaganda ads about the war of 1812 ... talk about living off past glories. I actually find those ads kind of rude and associate them with the British Empire ... not Canada. And I celebrate our independence and our alliance with our American friends. Personally I'd be fine if we could just restructure North America into a whole new union and dump both of the lousy governments we have now ( there we go ... I'm on a watch list for sure now ). I also really don't like some of the stuff I see going on at our borders. We have this show called Canadian Border Police and it really makes us look like ( insert choice content here ) sometimes. I just want to apologize so bad sometimes for Canadians behaving badly. We do have an intelligence service though ... two of them actually ...

Thanks for the smile. I admit I wrote that part tongue-in-cheek wondering what kind of response I'd solicit.

Years ago, I actually (briefly) dated a guy whose dad had been in the Canadian Air Force. I was told they literally only had a few handfulls of planes and maybe a few dozen pilots. I would expect that any serious threat to Canada would be seen as a threat to the U.S. and handled accordingly, so this has always made perfect sense to me. I'd imagine there must be someone there who gets and shares information with the U.S. but what agency does that and the size of the agency is something I don't know.

I love Dudley Do-Right. Since childhood, I've had this incredibly sweet and romantic notion of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police entirely because of Dudley Do-Right. Yes, I know they pretty much use the horses for ceremonial stuff and are mostly in modern horseless carriages (cars, trucks, vans, SUVs) these days but still, if you see a Mountie, give him a hug from me and tell him it's from a fan in the U.S.