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MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann

Ben Affleck has a new panic film – Gone Baby Gone - in which the lead child is blonde enough to remind all reviewers of Madeleine McCann. The film – a work of fiction - cannot be mentioned without also making mention of missing Madeleine.

It is the 12th Rule of Journalism.

THE OBSERVER: “The cruellest crime of all -Delayed by the McCann case, Ben Affleck’s intense and gripping thriller is well worth the wait”

Crimes involving children touch on our deepest emotions and though we’ve seen numerous films about infant abduction over the past 50 years, ranging in tone from Seance on a Wet Afternoon to Murder on the Orient Express, the subject is peculiarly affecting at the moment in the light of the publicity given to the cases of Shannon Matthews in Dewsbury and Madeleine McCann in Portugal… To add to the anxiety, there is an uncanny physical resemblance between Madeleine McCann and the film’s four-year-old Amanda McCready.

It’s tabloid bingo, in the broadsheet Observer! Can anyone mention Fritzl and get the prize?

IRISH INDEPENDENT: “It’s a film that examines the media hysteria and prurience that happens when children are abducted — especially pertinent themes in our post-Madeleine post-Austrian crazies times.”

Double points for the Irish Indy which manages to work in a reference to Josef Fritzl, whose crimes came to light more than year after Affleck finished his film.

Bingo!

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT: “A child is gone, but a reputation is reborn: Ben Affleck’s directorial debut was withdrawn last year because of the McCann case. It still makes disturbing viewing”

A missing child, but an actor reprieved. There’s a film in this.

Anyone likely to feel pained by the topic should know that Gone Baby Gone is no more comfortable to watch in 2008 than it would have been when Madeleine McCann stared out from every front page.

SUNDAY TIMES: “Gone Baby Gone - the Sunday Times review”

The UK release of the film was delayed because of the similarity between the name of the abducted child in the script – four-year-old Amanda McCready – and that of Madeleine McCann.

Mc… Mc… Is John McEnroe commentating on Wimbledon this year? Just wondering…

DAILY TELEGRAPH (Aus): “Extract: Truth about Maddie McCann”

IN this extract from Vanished, a book by Danny Collins, the Madeleine McCann mystery is again under the spotlight.

Facts as fiction. Facts as entertainment. Selling Madeleine McCann:

As a bilingual expat, Murat often worked for local police as a translator in cases involving English-speaking tourists.

In fact, it would later be revealed that he had acted in the role of interpreter for the Portuguese police during their questioning of two of the McCanns’ dinner companions, now dubbed the “Tapas Seven” by the ever-epigraphic UK press.

Surely the Tapas Nine?

Back to the facts checker, Mr Collins…

THE SUN - The UK release of Gone Baby Gone was delayed by seven months because of the strong similarities with the Madeleine McCann case.

TIME OUT - Due to superficial resemblances to the Madeleine McCann kidnapping case, ‘Gone Baby Gone’ was withdrawn from the London Film Festival last year…

Fact as fiction…

Posted: 8th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Josef Fritzl, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0