Mike McCurry's 'Munich' Tour of Duty

Every movie needs buzz. But Steven Spielberg didn't want any old red-carpet, klieg-light buzz for "Munich" -- he wanted Washington wonk buzz.

Enter Mike McCurry, the former State Department and White House press secretary who was tapped by the Oscar-winning director to bring a brainy foreign policy perspective to the marketing of the controversial new film. "Munich," which opens today in limited release, follows the Israeli retaliation after the slaying of 11 team members by Palestinian guerrillas at the 1972 Olympics.

McCurry met with Spielberg in early 2004, and outlined the issues. "Anytime you're dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian question, it tends to be a zero-sum game. People believe if one side wins, the other side loses." The movie, he told producers, required "unique positioning and a nontraditional launch."

To that end, McCurry recruited Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross for a series of high-brow advance screenings and panel discussions in New York and Washington for leading policy experts, academics, diplomats, politicians and press. The goal: to drive home the point that Spielberg didn't try to spin the story in favor of one side or the other, and to inject the film into the current debate about the appropriate response to terrorism.

The largest screening was held last week for 600 people at the Ronald Reagan Building hosted by Universal Pictures, Foreign Policy magazine and Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "It wasn't your typically red-carpet opening," said McCurry. "They had a seminar instead of popcorn."

Spielberg has deliberately stayed out of the pre-release fray: "Munich" has received brickbats (questions about his sources) and bouquets ("Spielberg's Secret Masterpiece" splashed on Time magazine's cover). But forget the actual movie: Does the fact that pundits are already fighting on op-ed pages mean McCurry might get more gigs in the movie biz? Possibly, but he's not quitting his day job.

"In movie promotion budgets, I was pocket change," he says. "But it was fun for me and Dennis."

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Not even three months into writing this column, and already we have a stalker. The nicest kind of stalker, really: Vince never lurks around the parking garage; he simply keeps track of how many exclamation points we use each day and drops us an e-mail now and then to update us on our stats. Pretty useful, actually!

But Vince doesn't just have a thing about punctuation -- he's got a way with words. So as The Reliable Source heads for a week-long hiatus, we share Vince's special holiday greeting -- which, after all, isn't just his wish for us but for all of you as well . . .

For Roxanne and Amy, here's my wish to you,

That in 2006 may all your sources be true!

May your columns be spicy, delightful and bold,