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	On Movies | Convicted Pedophile Ex-Priest Goes on Camera By Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer October 22, 2006 http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/entertainment/15806597.htm "We've all seen stories about victims," says Amy Berg, referring to the victims of sexual abuse. "But we've never seen a pedophile talking about it, and that's an important point. We have to understand why he did this, and what happened when he did." The pedophile in question is convicted and defrocked Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady, a smiling leprechaun of a man who, over nearly 20 years, raped and sodomized his way through a succession of small California parishes, leaving shattered families and destroyed lives in his wake. While the majority of his victims were children and teenagers, boys and girls, he was also convicted of sexually abusing a nine-month-old infant and the mother of one of his adolescent victims. Berg's wrenching documentary, Deliver Us From Evil, features a remarkable interview with O'Grady - shot in Ireland, his native country, to which he returned in 2001 after seven years in U.S. prison. The movie, which opens Friday at the Ritz Theaters, has prompted the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office to consider criminal charges against Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, who for many years was O'Grady's supervisor. Through O'Grady's own recollections, victims' accounts, and court testimony, Deliver Us from Evil makes the case that the Catholic Church knowingly suppressed information and deceived parishioners and law enforcement officials while shuttling the pedophile priest from one out-of-the-way parish to the next. The lawyer for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Michael Hennigan, stated this month that if L.A. Assistant District Attorney William Hodgman "is suggesting in any way that the cardinal is the subject of a criminal investigation, he is being irresponsible, and, in our judgment, is committing prosecutorial misconduct." The church refused to participate in Berg's movie, which won the documentary prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June, and was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. Mahony is seen in the movie, via videotape during O'Grady's trial. Berg, who produced news reports for CBS and CNN before embarking on her documentary debut, tracked O'Grady down. She began speaking regularly to him by phone, and eventually arranged a meeting in Dublin. "He just very candidly started talking to me," Berg recalled, interviewed on the day Deliver Us from Evil screened in Toronto. "He said he had never spoken to a journalist before. I guess I called him on the right day. But it was off the record at first, and then I met up with him a couple of months later. I said I was going to be in London for Christmas - which I wasn't - and then I asked him to meet me... . I didn't have it confirmed - I just went for it." The two had lunch in a Dublin restaurant, then continued on. "We spent the whole day talking about it. It was clear that he really wanted to talk." Berg flew back to Los Angeles, but not before she persuaded O'Grady to go on record. "Not on camera, but he agreed to talk to me every Sunday for an hour and let me record it, and we would decide what to do with it. And then, five months later, he decided to go on camera... . "I got on a plane, and hired the photographer and crew, and we started shooting." One of the truly disturbing things about Berg's interview is the ex-priest's remorseless, almost jolly tone. He speaks of his sexual attraction to children with a matter-of-fact shrug. "He had gone to some kind of 12-step meeting at this institute where he was supposed to be having therapy, and he was drawing on that experience," Berg says. "But you don't just say that. And the fact that he brought us into this park... and it was full of children, there was a playground, it was totally accessible to him. They don't have anything like Megan's Law in Ireland... it just doesn't exist there." On Monday, the Irish Independent reported that police officials believe O'Grady had fled the country, possibly to France, and may be en route to Canada. Death of some presidents.The heat-seeking fake doc Death of a President, opening at the Ritz Theaters Friday, isn't the only picture with assassination on its mind. An audacious, bad-taste speculation in which George W. Bush is gunned down on a Chicago sidewalk, the British-made telefilm seems to have anticipated a couple of other fictional kill-the-prez productions. Vantage Point, from UK director Pete Travis (Omagh), is a Rashomon-like drama in which William Hurt plays a Clintonesque commander in chief who becomes Target One on a state visit to Spain. Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, Saïd Taghmaoui, Zoe Saldana and Eduardo Noriega also star in the 2007 release. And in Shooter, which just wrapped production in Vancouver and Philadelphia, Antoine Fuqua runs Mark Wahlberg and Danny Glover through the hoops. The suspenser is about an expert marksman called out of retirement to track down a would-be presidential killer. Washington Post movie crit Stephen Hunterwrote the bestseller, and the screenplay. Eat, pray, love, go to bank. Philadelphia-based author Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia has been optioned by Brad Pitt's Plan B production shingle, and Julia Roberts has signed to star. The memoir is about a woman reeling from a nasty divorce who goes on a year-long sojourn: first to Rome (to feast), then to an ashram near Bombay (to meditate), and on to Bali (for "balancing"). Gilbert's agent, Sarah Chalfant, confirmed the deal via her BlackBerry. Ryan Murphy, of Running With Scissors, is the director. The Dismembered. The Secret Cinema holds its annual All-Night Fright Fest Saturday at Moore College. The movie marathon kicks off with the Philadelphia premiere of a 46-year-old homegrown horror-comedy made by Philly cineaste Ralph Hirshorn. The 1960 indie, The Dismembered (a.k.a. Oswald, You've Botched It Again), was shot in Chestnut Hill (and elsewhere), and deals with a gang of bumbling robbers spooked by a gang of equally bumbling ghosts. Hirshorn, founder of the Chestnut Hill Film Group, will participate in a Q&A led by local auteur Andrew Repasky McElhinney. Then more scary movies. E-mail: srea@phillynews.com
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