We are forced to review those pictures one week late. It was not possible to see Pearl Harbor before I left for Cannes on May 8. After Cannes, I flew to London, and saw it on the Wednesday night there, and filed my print review on deadline. Disney has never in 25 years made the slightest interference with what we review, what we say, or when we review it. If your correspondent wants proof of my alibi, he can check out my 13 daily columns from Cannes.
Some people actually think the Cannes Film Festival is important, too.
There is a report out there suggesting that former roughcuteer Ray Pride broke his embargo date for Pearl Harbor by releasing his review early for nefarious reasons. I did see the review early, though Ray was quite clear that it was not for review. Someone else who saw the review early, Mark Ebner , sent it out in an e-mail to dozens of industry insiders without telling Ray that it was happening. In fact, Ebner made it into a contest of guess the critic. Regardless, the review, linked to in this column last week, went up as scheduled by NewCity, not breaking the embargo or traditional review rules in any way.