'Body of lies' includes tall tales by its stars

From Jordan to Virginia with stops in Iran, Qatar, the Netherlands and Dubai, there are agents and counter agents everywhere. You might say it's a body of lies - all enmeshed in the war against terror.

David Ignatius, who is usually embedded at The Washington Post writing two columns a week for the op-ed page, purports to know all about this. After all, for 10 years he served as Middle East and chief diplomatic correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

His novel "Body of Lies" has become a huge-budgeted action movie that opens in theaters today and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a ground agent in Jordan for the CIA and Russell Crowe as the pesky, apparently immoral boss back in Langley, Va.

Ignatius is no ordinary ink-stained wretch.

On the day we met him, Ignatius was in the same room with some particularly high-priced "talent" of the Hollywood variety. All in the same room: DiCaprio (looking just about as handsome and boyish as he did in "Titanic"), Crowe (overweight and with a ponytail) and Ridley Scott, the legendary visual director who has been nominated for Oscars for directing "Gladiator," "Black Hawk Down" and "Thelma and Louise" but is more beloved for "Alien" and "Blade Runner." Scott has now directed "Body of Lies," mostly shot in Morocco, which doubles for most of those foreign locations.

Sell a book to Hollywood and you get to hang out with people like this. And, of course, we're in that room, too, which was at the Beverly Wil shire Hotel in Los Angeles. The director and two stars refused to talk to the press separately. They only want to talk as a gang, with the author along, one supposes, for support.

Ignatius laughed as he pointed out that two columns a week is too much for anyone to write.

"Body of Lies" is the first of his novels that has been adapted into a movie. The adaptation was done by no less than William Monahan, who won an Oscar for his last effort, "The Departed."

Ignatius, then, is in no mood to complain about the many changes that have been made from his novel.

Crowe insisted his character is from Arkansas, enabling him to use a kind of Bill Clinton accent.

"I never thought of that character as being from Arkansas," the author said," but now I can't think of him in any other way."

DiCaprio's character is identified as being a Tar Heel, but the author said that wasn't in the book. The romantic leading lady was a French embassy employee in the book. Now, she is a Muslim Iranian who is forbidden to touch any man before marriage, which slightly cramps DiCaprio's pickup lines.

Ignatius is happy, though. He said the movie is still "in the spirit" of the novel.

The movie is about how the CIA agent sets up a phony terrorist group to make the real terrorist, a fiend named Al-Saleem, so jealous that he will come out of hiding and challenge the upstart.

Ignatius explained: "If you can't get inside, you have to make them think you're inside. The spy business is a lot like journalism. It's about identifying people who know things, gaining their trust and then getting them to cross a line and tell you things they might not want to initially."

Hmmmm. Is that what we're trying to do with these movie stars and director? Maybe so.

Crowe, with Australian accent flaring, called us "mate" one minute and a "bloke" the next as he pointed out that this is the fourth time he's worked with Ridley Scott - after "Gladiator," for which he won the Oscar, "A Good Year" and "American Gangster." He will make his fifth movie with Scott soon - to be called "Nottingham," a new perspective on the Robin Hood legend.

"It has to be better than any Robin Hood movie ever, or why do it?" he vowed.

Even better than Errol Flynn's version?

"Say, wasn't that bloke Errol an Australian? That'll be hard to top, but Ridley is directing it. That's enough to say."

As for DiCaprio, Crowe said, "The last time I worked with him was in a Western called 'The Quick and the Dead.' I tell people he was 12 but, actually, I think he was 18. Miss Sharon Stone was the big star, so people kept asking who we were. The main things that have changed is that I think Leo has lost his virginity since then. Maybe. And now he can drink, legally."

Since he plays a father who barks international spy orders while he's driving his kids to soccer practice, Crowe noted that he loves being a father in real life. He says he's arranged a marriage between his wee son and fellow Australian Nicole Kidman's little daughter, Sunday Rose.

"They will make a nice couple and I'm not against arranged marriages at all. Nicole is so happy, and she approves the marriage, too."

DiCaprio, obviously wanting to be taken as a serious actor, interrupted with the information that he had to learn three Arabic accents for his part - "one of the most difficult things I ever had to do."

He said he did his own stunts but director Scott reminded him: "You didn't like those barking dogs. You didn't do that scene."

"I think they were rabid," DiCaprio countered, "but I did do the torture scene. I was sick for three days afterward."

Scott quickly pointed out that there are no beheadings in the movie, although the script called for it. "I drew the line at beheadings."

Some people who had seen the movie were puzzled about all the technical "things" that linked Virginia with Jordan, even to the point that Crowe, the untrustworthy boss, could see DiCaprio, the conscience-ridden agent, in the middle of the desert.

Ignatius, the expert, said a satellite hook-up called the Predator can do all these things, and an ordinary cell phone can do the rest.

The author added, though, "We can't be sure what the CIA can and cannot do. Their entire existence is dependent upon secrecy."

His next novel, "The Increment," will be published in 2009. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer already has the movie for the book in development.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com