Thursday, February 10, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 9
Language barriers don't stop romance
Continued from page 1B
Alfonso said he enjoyed their time together.
"My life with her in Spain was very happy because every hour, every minute, every second was better than every movie or story of love I have come across," he said.
After five weeks passed and Alfonso went home to Malaga, the couple continued to see each other. He drove to Granada or she took the train so they could be together.
"Spending more than two days apart seemed like forever, even though it was an hour away." Elyse said.
The time when she would be even farther away from him arrived in June when Elyse moved back to America.
It was difficult for them to be happy knowing they would soon be apart, she said. They talked about visiting, and he planned to travel to America in November.
"I was sad, but happy knowing the other half of my heart was coming in six months." Elyse said.
Alfonso felt the same way — which was why he sold his car, belongings and even his dog to find work in America and to be with Elyse.
His friends and family stood behind his decision, as did Elvse's parents.
"I was coming to a country that was a dream to all of my friends," Alfonso said.
However, Alfonso could speak only a few English words when he arrived.
"The Spanish and English dictionary has become a vital part of our daily lives," Elvy said.
Her Spanish improved, and she translated for Alfonso.
He stayed at her parents' house during winter break, painting rooms in the house as a way to repay her parents for food and housing. When the break ended, he wanted to move to Lawrence with Elyse.
But he had little money and no work visa, and attempts to obtain one failed.
"America makes it difficult to accept people from other countries," Alfonso said. He returned to Spain Fob 2.
Elyse will meet him there in June, but she does not know how long she will stay.
"I have never felt more complete in my entire life," Elyse said. "When I met him, I found myself in him. We both found ourselves in each other — our wants, our needs
and that is why we are fighting the cultural barriers to go beyond the expected. We found ourselves in Spain."
Elyse Neitzel, Dallas senior, and Alfonso Luna, Malaga, Spain, resident, have been dating since they met last spring in Granada. Alfonso came to the United States in November to see Elyse, but he was not able to obtain a work visa. He returned to Spain Feb. 2. Elyse will meet him there in June, but she does not know how long she will stay. Contributed photo
Rosie is phone friend on ABC's Millionaire
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — After waging a public campaign to be a "phone friend" on ABC's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, talk show host Rosie O'Donnell got her wish.
She was called upon for help on Sunday's edition of the quiz show, by a contestant using a "lifeline" to get advice answering a question.
O'Donnell and ABC were tight-lipped yesterday about who O'Donnell helped, what the question was or even if she got it right.
But she'd be less likely to brag about it — as she did to talk show guest Matt Lauer yesterday — if she gave a contestant abum steer. She told Lauer that she was called the night before when the show was taped, then promptly refused to answer his questions about it.
"Let me just say I was nervous, and it's a lot more tension than people realize," O'Donnell said.
As game show viewers know, contestants get three lifelines if they are stumped by a multiple choice question. They can poll the audience,
have two wrong answers taken out of contention, or call a friend. The friend has 30 seconds to offer advice.
On her own show, the Millionaire-fixated O'Donnell frequently has asked for the opportunity to help out. Contestants had arranged for O'Donnell to be a phone friend four times before she got on the air during Tuesday's taping, said her representative, Jennifer Glasek.
O'Donnell's campaign hasn't always gone smoothly, though. The New York Post reported this week that several Millionaire contestants had asked for her help and hadn't gotten a reply.
The Post called her a phone-friend phony.
Glasek said O'Donnell had gotten so many requests that she'd been unable to respond to them all. She was also rejected once because she wanted to be reached by cell phone and the show's rules don't allow this, ABC said.
O'Donnell's new friend gets a bonus for calling her. The contestant will be a guest on her talk show Monday.
Hurricane creates storm of controversy
The Associated Press
PATERSON, N.J. — Barbara Burns watched her mother die from gunshots 34 years ago, wounds delivered as she cowered in the corner of a Paterson bar.
Burns says she now sees the killer glorified every day.
For the cost of a movie ticket, Burns can watch the events surrounding her mother's slaying in The Hurricane, an award-winning film playing in movie theaters nationwide.
Burns and other victims' relatives said Tuesday that Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the middleweight boxer twice convicted of the killings and later freed, is a murderer whose life story is skewed to make him look saintly in the film.
"They fabricated the facts to make money and made a hero out of a cold-blooded murderer," said Burns, the daughter of Hazel Tanis, one of three people shot inside the Lafayette Bar & Grill.
Tom Vicedomini, the grandson of victim Fred Nauyoks, said that Carter has continued to mask the truth and elicit sympathy as well as a profitable living off the blood of their loved ones.
Carter and John Artis were convicted a year after the 1966 killings of bartender Jim Oliver and patrons Tanis and Nauyoks. Their convictions were overturned in 1975, but both were found guilty a second time in 1976.
A federal judge freed Carter in 1985, ruling that prosecutors improperly presented an argument that he was out for racial revenge in the killings. Prosecutors decided not to retry him after the decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
the criticism from victims' relatives is the latest development in a storm of controversy surrounding the film, which was released nationwide last month and won a Golden Globe for Denzel Washington's portrayal of Carter.
The film's backers admit to changing some details to keep the movie a manageable length, but the producers have taken out ads in Hollywood trade publication to refute allegations of bias.
Lawyers for Carter and Artis also planned a news conference in New York today to defend the film.
"The movie is 100 percent correct in showing these people as being innocent," said Leon Friedman, one of their attorneys.
Victims' relatives pointed out that no court has ruled that Carter was innocent. They said the film ignored statements by eyewitnesses that Carter's car was at the scene and contained bullets from the murder weapon.
- Paul Wice, a Drew University professor who has written a book about the case, said authorities never positively concluded that the bullets came from the murder weapon. Some eyewitness testimony also was later recanted.
Another sore spot is the film's fictional police officer Vincent Della Pesca, who fabricated evidence to convict Carter.
James DeSimone, whose father, Detective Vincent DeSimone, was a chief investigator in the case, said he believed the character was loosely based on his father — a portrayal he called offensive.
Former New York Times reporter Selwyn Raab, who reported on the overturning of Carter's first conviction, also criticized the creation of Della Pesca.
"The discrepancy between the 'true story' and what is seen on screen raises questions about
how Hollywood presents actual events and the liberties taken with the truth," Raab wrote in December.
Wice said the film's creation of Della Pesca was silly and the film wrongly implied that Carter was jailed as an adult for juvenile crimes, when in fact he was convicted of several muggings.
"They just screwed up so many things," Wice said.
Rudy Langlais, the film's executive producer, said Tuesday that the racist detective character was meant to represent a number of law enforcement officials. He also said the film used voiceovers from Carter's autobiography to explore his darker side.
"We acknowledge in his voice that his childhood had produced a very rough, angry, hateful man that was later to undergo a transformation." he said.
He added, "That does not mean that Rubin Carter committed murder."
Meanwhile, relatives say the movie has reopened wounds.
Carter, who lives in Toronto, was on a speaking tour and unavailable for comment, a representative said Tuesday.
They were particularly offended when Washington, accepting his Golden Globe award with Carter at his side, said "This man right here is love, he's all love."
The families also were angered by a recent interview Carter did with a Toronto TV station, in which he said that he can't be sure the three murders ever occurred.
"The worst part for me is the influence it has on the young people ... who look at him as a hero," said Burns, 55. "I think the real truth would be much more interesting."
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