From: noraa@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (aaron.l.hoffmeyer)
Subject: FATHER IN CUSTODY CASE SAYS TV MOVIE LIBELS HIM
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 06:11:10 GMT

HE SAYS HE'LL SUE ABC IF IT RUNS AS IS

Eric Foretich sat stiffly, occasionally drumming his fingers, as he
watched actors in a TV movie portray him and those closest to him
during the most traumatic years of his life.

Foretich, 50, an oral surgeon, was still dressed in conservative suit
he wore earlier at his clinic in McLean, Va. He had just completed the
several-hour drive to Gloucester County to watch a videotape of _A
Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story_, which airs on ABC.

Foretich said the movie libels him and will prompt him to sue ABC if the
network does not either change or cancel it.

The movie is based on the protracted, high-profile custody war between
Foretich and Morgan, his ex-wife, over their now 10-year-old daughter,
Hilary.

Their struggle attracted world-wide attention when Morgan, a plastic
surgeon, spent more than two years in a Washington jail rather than
allow a court-ordered visit by Hilary with Foretich, whom she accused
of molesting the child when Hilary was two.

After a special act of Congress caused Morgan's release in 1989,
Foretich learned the Hilary had been spirited out of the country by
Morgan's parents, first to England, then to New Zealand, where the girl
now lives with Morgan.

Foretich was never charged and has steadfastly maintained that Morgan's
accusations are false. He gave up his fight, resigned to not seeing his
daughter until she's an adult, only after the New Zealand courts
granted custody to Morgan.

Morgan's New Zealand lawyer, Austin Forbes, said his client would not
comment on the movie. He said she refuses media interviews for fear of
jeopardizing her standing with the New Zealand courts.

From published reports about the movie, as well as from his
correspondence with ABC executives, Foretich suggested he knew _A
Mothers' Right_ was going to trash him.

David Westin, ABC's general counsel, admitted in a letter to Foretich
that "the motion picture relates events from Dr. Morgan's perspective,"
but Westin said ABC concluded it was not the "one-sided distortion you
describe."

Then why, Foretich wondered aloud during the Gloucester viewing, does
the actor playing him roll his eyes so crazily?

Foretich is thin, with an angular face that makes his eyes seem
proportionally larger, so when they register fatigue it dominates his
demeanor. When he's angry his eyes flash with menace.

The actor who plays Foretich is Terrence Knox, who is younger and more
conventionally handsome than Foretich, but his face is bland and his
eyes unusually large.

Knox's most recent role was playing a psycho-stalker in the TV movie
_Overexposed_, and he played a rapist on the series _St. Elsewhere_. He
played a lead role in the short-lived Vietnam-retro series, _Tour of
Duty_.

Bonnie Bedelia, whose credits include _Heart Like a Wheel_ and _Presumed
Innocent_, plays Morgan as timid and woeful. The movie does not
re-create Morgan's 1989 appearance on _Nightline_, when she laughed
strangely into the camera and, almost shouting, told Ted Koppel that
Foretich had "raped my little girl!  He raped my little girl!"

"He had me looking like a complete crazy person, and she's so serene,"
Foretich said.  "They didn't mention that she hired a publicity agent
before she even went to jail.

"The whole thing was orchestrated from the very beginning."

He noted that Morgan, in the movie, is always address as "doctor,"
while he rarely receives the courtesy title. He commented on his
character again: "I look demented, like an oaf with an IQ of 90."

Knox portrays Foretich as a publicity hound, always holding news
conferences.  Morgan seems camera shy.

It was just the way around, Foretich said.

He observed that the film omits any mention that while he had passed
two polygraph tests regarding the molestation allegations, Morgan
refused to take any.

Newport News Daily Press         Columbus Dispatch       11/29/92

#### End of Article

Last weekend my ex-wife told me that Dr. Elizabeth Morgan is a national
hero.  Thank God I only have to deal with her for 14 more years.

Aaron L. Hoffmeyer
TR@CBNEA.ATT.COM 
Xref: sparky alt.dads-rights:3086 alt.child-support:4037