A priest, a rabbi and a Tibetan monk walk into the office of New Line Cinemas' president Michael DeLuca and...
This isn't a setup for a joke, but a partial lineup of the support team "American History X" director Tony Kaye gathered delivery date of his cut of the film.
At the July 27 meeting, Kaye, his own holy trinity (two other monks were supposed to attend but were late and missed the for his most recent meeting with New Line brass to discuss the parley) and his manager Marty Bauer met with DeLuca, New Line chairman Bob Shaye and production VP Brian Witten to decide when his version of the film would be delivered. (The Brit artist/helmer also brought his own camera crew to film the proceedings, but that's where the execs drew the line, forbidding the crew from entering the meeting.)
According to Bauer, Kaye assembled this multi-denominational God squad, not as an assault on New Line's moral groundwork, but because "he left the meeting would have more of a spiritual tone and be less contentious."
For nearly two months, Kaye has waged a public and costly campaign against New Line over the editing of "History X". He is understood to have spent nearly $100,000 on "hype art", his term for the numerous ads he has taken out in Daily Variety and other papers, defending his stance that New Line should release his cut of the film.
Though Kaye had been given more time to work on his edit of the film, New Line reportedly was leaning toward a version of the film that had been put together using their input as well as that of the film's producers and star, Edward Norton.
Perhaps the clergies' presence helped, because despite the dadaesque atmosphere he has created around the film, Kaye was given another week to determine when he could deliver the film.
While no one in Kaye's camp could come up with names for the clergy (who served as silent witnesses and did not speak during the meeting), both his publicist and manager said they were the real thing and not from central casting. New Line refused to comment.