NBC's promotional campaign for "Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald" screams from the screen that "THIS IS THE MOVIE THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE!"
Who "they" are, viewers aren't told.After viewing the movie, my guess is that the only people who really don't want you to see this movie are the folks at ABC, CBS and Fox, who'd rather you were watching their programming.
"Fatal Deception" is by no means earth-shattering. There are no revelations here.
What this is is the rather sad story of the woman who had the misfortune of being married to a guy who turned out to be an abusive jerk - and who is believed to have assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
Helena Bonham Carter stars as Marina Oswald Porter, the woman who married Lee Harvey Oswald after he had defected to the Soviet Union. Theirs was not a marriage made in heaven, particularly after Oswald returned to the United States with wife and daughter in tow.
Oswald couldn't keep a job. He occasionally smacked his wife. He had odd meetings with odd men at odd times.
And, some 15 years after his and the JFK's deaths, his widow (who remarried in 1965) began to believe some of the conspiracy theories out there that either lessened or eliminated Lee's guilt in the assassination.
The real emotional impact here is of a woman who, through no fault of her own, is branded for life because she was married to the suspected assassin. And the effect it had on her two daughters.
And, while Frank Oswald doesn't do much as Lee, Bonham Carter brings real emotion to her portrayal of Marina.
This should not, however, by any means be confused with actual history. Not only is there a good deal of flirting with some of those conspiracy theories, but you have to wonder exactly how much research went into "Fatal Deception."
The story, which begins in 1978 and flashes back to 1963 and earlier, seems to be bouncing around a bit much for even the writers. In one glaringly laughable slip, the year is identified as 1978. Marina's second husband tells her not to fret too much about her younger daughter from her first marriage because she's "only 12."
Let's see. Lee Harvey Oswald has been dead for 15 years, and his second child is 12?
As the movie concludes, Marina Oswald Porter is quoted as saying, "Almost 30 years have gone by in America, and I believe we are all entitled to know the truth."
A noble sentiment. But don't go looking for the truth in "Fatal Deception."
JOHNNY CARSON'S HEIR: The logical heir to Johnny Carson, of course, would be Jay Leno.
Leno took over "The Tonight Show" from Carson, after all.
But Carson, for his part, has done absolutely nothing to help Leno or in any way give him his mark of approval. And in one of his few public comments on the Leno vs. David Letterman competition, Carson let it be known that he had watched the premiere of Letterman's "Late Show" and enjoyed it.
Every talk show host in America has been trying to get Carson to come on as a guest. And he has turned them all down.
But last week, his voice did show up on the "Late Show," as Carson chatted with Letterman by telephone.
The premise for the call was that Letterman, having already run out of ideas for his show, was calling Carson to ask his permission to do the "Stump the Band" bit. Carson was still a hoot, saying that things were great in California now that "the mudslides are putting out the fire!"
When Letterman asked for permission to do "Stump the Band," Carson responded, "This is a strange coincidence. You're the second person in the last six weeks to ask me to use that. Yeah, Chevy Chase called, and now I'm feeling guilty because he's a good friend of mine and I said he couldn't use it. Probably would have saved his (expletive)!"
"Well, Johnny, I'm not calling exactly calling because my (expletive) needs saving!" Letterman said. "But, you know, it would mean a lot to me and also to the kids on the staff."
"Yeah, I can't claim that as any `intellectual property' at all," Carson said. "Maybe can we agree on some kind of fee and you can go ahead and use it. . . . I thought maybe you can take over my alimony payments. . . . You can use it with my blessing."
Personally, I would have loved to have seen Leno's reaction when he learned that Carson had given Letterman any kind of a blessing.
QUICK CANCELLATION: If you were looking for "The Paula Poundstone Show" on Saturday night, you were pretty much alone.
Although it didn't carry as many megatons as "The Chevy Chase Show," ABC's "The Paula Poundstone Show" was still a bomb of enormous proportions.
Although Poundstone is a genuinely funny standup comedian, that didn't translate onto TV, where she came off as odd, dull and pretty much just plain lifeless.
The ratings were certainly dead, which is why ABC yanked this disaster off the air after only two outings and inserted a rerun of "Matlock" this past Saturday.
Watching Poundstone was as uncomfortable as matching Chase, but it wasn't any fun at all.
The network has another "Matlock" scheduled for this week, followed by a couple of specials. Followed by some kind of decision on what ABC is going to air on its worst night of the week.