script battle left Goldman uncredited

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2002)

The section in William Goldman's book Adventures in Screenwriting on ATPM tells how Goldman spent eight months putting together the script that got Redford and the studio's approval. Unfortunately he rubbed Carl Bernstein and some other guys at the Post up the wrong way (not Woodward) and Bernstein went away and wrote an alternative with then girlfriend Nora Ephron, which they broke on Goldman out of the blue at Redford's apartment not long before they were due to start shooting. The changes that were used were all fictitious and all made Bernstein look as cool as possible... Woodward admitted to Goldman afterwards that "allowing them to write that was one of the worst things I ever did in my life". It's not just stars who have egos...