Tabloid (film)

Tabloid
Directed by Errol Morris
Release date
  • September 3, 2010 (2010-09-03) (Telluride Film Festival)
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Tabloid is a 2010 American documentary film directed by Errol Morris. It tells the story of Joyce McKinney, who in 1977 was accused of kidnapping and raping Kirk Anderson,[1] an American Mormon missionary. The incident, known as the Mormon sex in chains case, became a major tabloid story in the United Kingdom and triggered a circulation battle between two popular tabloid newspapers, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express.

The film is based on interviews of McKinney, journalist Peter Tory (1939-2012), and photographer Kent Gavin conducted by Morris.[2][3] The film makes reference to Mormon culture, such as temple garments.[4]

Synopsis

The film, narrated primarily by McKinney herself and supplemented by other interviews with primary characters and experts, is presented by animated headlines, newspaper photos, and brief televised news reports from the time of the case. McKinney details her upbringing as a charismatic young beauty queen with a self-reported IQ of 168. In search of a "clean-cut, all-American boy" for a potential husband, McKinney is introduced to Kirk Anderson, a young Mormon man on the eve of his religious mission. McKinney states that she and Anderson fell madly in love and that they were engaged to be married, but that she mistrusted the Mormon church and its hold over Anderson, declaring the church to be a "cult" that had "brainwashed" him. Former Mormon turned activist Troy Williams offers insight into Mormon practices, beliefs, and attitudes to explain how Mormonism might seem cult-like to one not raised in the religion.

When Anderson was sent to England on his mission, McKinney, believing that the church elders deliberately separated them, recruited a pilot (Jackson Shaw, who appears in interviews) to fly her, her friend Keith "K.J." May, and a hired bodyguard named Gil Parker to England on a "rescue mission" McKinney framed in terms of a romantic caper. Upon arriving in England, McKinney allegedly revealed items such as handcuffs, chloroform, and a fake handgun, causing Shaw and Parker to fear they might be participating in something illegal. Both men immediately returned to America, leaving McKinney and May to continue alone.

McKinney secretly contacted Anderson and persuaded him to meet with her. On 14 September 1977, Anderson was officially reported missing. At this point, the accounts famously differ, with McKinney claiming that Anderson went with her willingly to a cottage in Devon, where the two of them had voluntary sex for several days. Anderson, however, claimed in police reports that he was forced into a car at gunpoint, driven into the countryside, and chained to a bed by May and McKinney, where McKinney raped him, telling him she would continue to do so until she became pregnant. McKinney admits that Anderson was chained to the bed but states that Anderson consented to the bondage in an effort to overcome his intense guilt regarding premarital sex. Williams suggests that perhaps the truth lies somewhere between Anderson's and McKinney's differing accounts, and that Anderson may initially gone willingly or even engaged in consensual sex, but that McKinney may have ignored his later objections.

According to McKinney, she, May, and Anderson spent three days in Devon before returning to London, where McKinney was shocked to read headlines announcing Anderson's kidnapping. Anderson persuaded McKinney to allow him to go to police to assure them that he was safe. The story again diverges, with McKinney stating that upon returning to the Mormons, Anderson was threatened with excommunication if he refused to admit he had been kidnapped. According to police records, however, Anderson reappeared on 17 September, three days after being reported missing, and gave a statement that he had been abducted and sexually assaulted. Two days later, on 19 September, McKinney and May agreed to meet with Anderson in what turned out to be a police sting, during which they were arrested and charged with kidnapping, possession of a replica firearm, and sexual indecency (as there were no laws regarding the sexual assault of a man by a woman).

At trial, McKinney delivered a colorful statement professing her love for Anderson and detailing their sexual escapades, insisting that he had gone willingly and that their sex had been consensual. The newspapers, particularly the tabloids, were charmed by McKinney and the scandalous case, reporting every detail. McKinney and May were freed on bail, and McKinney spoke exclusively with the Daily Express, painting herself as an ordinary young woman in extraordinary circumstances and stressing her innocence. According to Express journalist Peter Tory, the popularity of the McKinney story led Express editors to involve McKinney in a series of publicity stunts, including using her to upstage Joan Collins at the premiere of The Stud. Meanwhile rival tabloid Daily Mirror obtained evidence that McKinney had funded her trip to England by working as call girl in the States. They collected a dossier of hundreds of photos of a nude McKinney performing BDSM acts, which they then published.

On the eve of her sentencing, stating that the tabloids had ruined her reputation, McKinney fled Britain with May, both of them traveling incognito in a variety of outlandish disguises. Scotland Yard found McKinney guilty in absentia but declined to pursue extradition.

In 1984, seven years after her escape, McKinney surfaced again after her arrest for stalking Anderson (by then returned to Utah and married to another woman) at his workplace.

In August 2008, McKinney again made international headlines after becoming the first private individual to have an animal commercially cloned. McKinney initially denied that she was the same woman involved in the "Manacled Mormon" case thirty years prior, but she eventually released a statement admitting her true identity. South Korean biologist Jin Han Hong, who participated in cloning McKinney's deceased pet pit bull, gives a brief overview of the process, stressing that their work cannot "create life" from nothing.

McKinney claims to have spent the last thirty years writing a book entitled A Very Special Love Story about her life and the case, but that her efforts have been hindered due to documents having been stolen from her home and vehicle, including evidence proving the nude photographs published by the Mirror were doctored (Kent Gavin, former photographer for the Mirror, counters that the Mirror possessed the original negatives of all the nude photos but that they were lost when the Mirror changed ownership). She further claims that journalists and curiosity seekers continue to trespass on her property to this day. She has never married, stating that Anderson is the only man she will ever love. She now lives in isolation with her aging father and her five cloned pit bulls.

End credits reveal that Keith "K.J." May died in 2004 and that Kirk Anderson did not wish to be interviewed for the film.

Release

The film was released July 15, 2011.

Critical Response

Tabloid was greeted with largely positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave it four stars, favorably comparing the showcasing of multiple, contradictory accounts of the same events, with Morris reluctant to frame any version of the story as "true," to the film Rashomon.[5] Tabloid currently holds a 92% "Fresh" rating at RottenTomatoes.com.[6]

In November 2011, Joyce McKinney filed a lawsuit with the Los Angeles Superior Court against Errol Morris, claiming that Morris and his producer Mark Lipson misled her into believing she was being interviewed for a TV series about innocent people whose lives were ruined by paparazzi and media circuses, and that she was not aware until after the documentary's release that it would be a feature-length film focused solely on the "Manacled Mormon" case. McKinney sued on the grounds that she was defamed, as the film portrays her as "crazy, a sex offender, an S&M prostitute, and/or a rapist."[7] In 2013 the case was found in Morris' favour.

In January 2016, McKinney again filed suit against Morris, claiming that the film had misrepresented her and that Morris and his associates had broken into her home, stolen personal items related to the case, and threatened the life of her service dog if McKinney did not sign release papers allowing them to use her footage for the film. Legal representatives for Morris stated that "evidence will show that [McKinney] willingly – in fact, eagerly – participated in the lengthy interview that is featured in the film."[8] Morris stated in an interview later that year that the case had been dismissed as "frivolous".[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Why they're calling this snobby Titanic show 'Drownton Abbey'". Irish Independent. 2012-03-31.
  2. ↑ Was It Love? The ‘Manacled Mormon’ and His Kinky Weekend July 14, 2011, New York Times A. O. Scott
  3. ↑ "Tabloid film info from TIFF". Toronto International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2010-12-27. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
  4. ↑ Michael Phillips (2011-07-14). "'70s scandal brought to spotlight in 'Tabloid'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  5. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "Tabloid Movie Review & Film Summary (2011) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  6. ↑ "Tabloid". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  7. ↑ Hann, Michael (2011-11-08). "Joyce McKinney sues Errol Morris over Tabloid". The Guardian. London.
  8. ↑ Gardner, Eriq (2016-01-15). "Errol Morris Heads to Trial Against Irate Plaintiff at Center of 2011 Documentary 'Tabloid'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
  9. ↑ Brown, Phil (2016-10-14). "Errol Morris on The B-Side and His Donald Trump Short". Collider. Retrieved 2018-05-22.
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