The Knoxville News-Sentinel from Knoxville, Tennessee • 113

Mary Evans film shuffled to Oct 21 after threat of legal action Evans) With so much backlash over the Atlanta child murders documentary movie last year and other documentary shows raising some legal questions the network decided to take a close look at the legal angles eventually deciding they had the right to show the movie but making it a fictionalized story instead of a documentary opinion was that with any public figure we can do a docu-drama based on their lives with or without their said Zachary never had Jean Har- permission to do a film about her murder triaL We simply pulled that from the trial The writers of the film script Sue Grafton and Steve Humphrey (who also are co-producers) decided the true story of the Evans case really interesting enough for a two-hour movie would have had to work hard to make Mary story Grafton told the Times the escape she and Tim Kirk spent most of their time going to the dog races which is not exactly high drama Also Mary Evans claimed mental illness as a defense and that is a bore Inevitably there are some parallels to the red case but our story is very In the movie the story is set in Ohio and the Evans character is portrayed as a lot more mousy than the real-life Evans But Zimbalist a regular on the TV series said the real story of the Evans-Kirk case might be more interesting true story is richer It would have to be done as a feature film because quite complex and inexplicable Mary Evans had ever by KEN MINK New-Sentine entertainment editor NBC-TV has been dilly-dallying around about showing the movie on the Run" the story of how Knoxville lawyer Mary Evans helped a convicted criminal escape custody and then Joined him in eluding capture for five months The network has twice postponed the film with the latest an -nouncement a few days ago pegging the movie for airing on Oct 21 Threat of legal action is believed to have been part of the problem getting the show on the air Knoxville lawyer Robert Ritchie who represented Evans during her trial had earlier written film producer Jay Benson that plans to make a movie of the Evans story could result in a lawsuit over violation of rights of privacy But the film was eventually made and Ritchie says there are no immediate dans for legal action "I think Mary is going to take it any further But it's up to her" he said Evans served 11 months in prison and has since remarried and is living in Florida She had divorced her first husband shortly before the incident in which she helped free -convict Timothy Kirk Kirk was in prism on an armed robbery charge and had been later charged with killing two inmates who he said had threatened to murder him over racial issues NBC-TV has been a bit unsure whether to bill the film as a docu-drama based on fact or go with it as a straight fictionalized story The network sent out a news release earlier saying the film is a fictionalized story but added there ything going for her She was engaged to a very good-looking successful lawyer she was elegant and always dressed to the nines So it's hard to understand why she threw it an away The character I play is imprisoned in her own way at the beginning so it's easier to understand why she wants to escape In television you have to spell things out very dearly was Mary Evans's first capital case A life was in her hands and she couldn't handle that responsibility I did incorporate that in my characterization It helped me to play the scene where Diana makes the decision to break the guy out of A California psychologist won a 1979 libel suit in which he claimed a fictionalized novel made it too easy for the public to know he was the subject of the book are all concerned with that case but irt beginning to look as if that was a unique says Zachary lawsuits along similar lines have been thrown out by the courts I think we are in any danger on on the Run The possibility of a lawsuit still remains a reality but network officials apparently feel on solid ground with their thinly disguised story of the Evans-Kirk case Writer Grafton also defended her rights to pen the story despite the similarities to the Evans case because one woman broke one guy out of prison mean whe can control the rights to every story of a woman helping a man escape from prison The movie Soffei' tdd a similar story Our film has as much in common with that as it does with the Mary Evans she told the Times to a cable TV service which tn turn pays the cable networks Several cable networks have been threatening for years to scramble their signals so that only cable TV companies can receive them But it would cost millions of dollars for the cable networks to scramble their signals Furthermore Congress has decreed that if the cable networks do scramble their signals they must make descramblers available to individual satellite dish owners at a reasonable cost It is therefore incredible for networks such as to expect satellite dish owners to send them $1995 Misleading news releases announcing impending to begin when no actual plans have been readied are a disservice and disgrace Only Home Mary Evans "once was a similar case in Tennessee" NBC said Stephanie Zimbalist who plays the woman lawyer win be called Diana Rockland in the film But Zimbalist in a later NBC-TV news release refers to her character as Mary Evans Evans in on the is a juicy role a criminal lawyer who falls in love with the murderer defending and breaks him out of Zimbalist is quoted as saying in the news release The role of Kirk is played by Alec Baldwin a series star He will be called Sean Carpenter in the film The NBC-TV news release summarizing the movie puts it this way: plays Diana Rockland an attorney who is emotionally frustrated until she meets convict Sean Carpenter He makes her pan until 6 am seven days a says Jacob win keep our regular talk shows during the daytime But our Sportstalk show with David Shirk will now be from to 7 pm each weekday We will also continue to air the Atlanta Braves the Central High football games on Friday nights and the Austin-East high school basketball games this The sports events win take preference when conflicts occur he said Just felt there is a good size audience out there for contemporary urban music the WBMK ratings showed that So we are going to try to provide a place where Stephanie Zimbalist feel alive for the first time Sean knows that his fellow prisoners have a vendetta against him and will eventually kill him unless he breaks out of prison When Diana realizes this she throws reason aside and joins her escaping lover they brave police barricades and scheming friends and family as they try to outwit the law They take on menial Jobs to stay alive but everywhere they run the police are close NBC-TV bought the rights to a Rolling Stone magazine story about the Evans-Kirk case in 1983 The New York Times reported that Don Zachary the NBC-TV vice president of legal affairs received a letter from attorney Riley Anderson threatening an invasion of privacy lawsuit if the network made a film of the story (Anderson no longer represents WBMK that audience can find their kind of Jacob said the addition of the music means the evening and late night talk shows hosted by Bruce Williams Sally Jessee Raphael and Larry King won't be aired by WKGN are syndicated shows that most people around here can pick up at night on powerful stations such as WOWO-AM of Fort Wayne Ind or WCKY-AM of Cincinnati if they want to continue to follow said Jacob WKGN also is adding Brother Louis Gospel Caravan show to weekend schedule running it from 6-8 am Saturdays and ajn Sundays The changes become effective Monday TV scrambling: The Arts and Entertainment Network in a news release a few days ago said it has unyeilejl plans to begin scram WKGN to fill music void left by of TV scrambling misleading bling its signal OcL 1 the cost to receive in private homes will be $1995 Once the industry-wide scrambling policy goes into effect will be marketed to the home satellite market directly by local cable affiliates" Wonderful except a big catch: doesn't have the capability to scramble its TV signal and there is no industry-wide scrambling policy in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public is asking satellite dish owners in effect to send them $1995 a year for services they are now getting free of charge The signal like that of dozens of othe cable networks is beamed back to Earth via satellite where owners of Earth satellite reception dishes pick up the signals for their TV sets The recent demise of Knoxville radio station WBMK-AM (1430) left a music void that WKGN-AM (1340) has decided to fill WBMK succumbed to tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service taking over the station assets a little over a week ago Ironically WBMK had experienced a recent surge in popularity gaining considerably in the periodic Arbitron ratings of radio stations in the metropolitan Knoxville area Mindful of these figures WKGN Manager Fred Jacob has stepped in with a new nighttime schedule of contemporary urban music featuring the likes of Prince the Jack-sons Darrel Hall John Oates Diana Ross Smoky Robinson and a lot of the old Motown hits WKGN for several years has been a news-talk format station and will retain that identity during Ms daylight hours "We win go to the urban contemporary music format from 7 Box Office (HBO) has completed Many cable network systems plans for TV satellite picture are angry that satellite dish owners scrambling and they are yet to im-get their shows without subscribing plemcnt them.