In today's update, President Nixon disputes the circumstances of his legal troubles, Vice President Agnew pleads guilty to avoid prison, Paramount wants revisions on the Roddenberry movie pitch, and Nimoy writes his first autobiography,
I Am Not Spock, a year before he does IRL.
NIXON CLAIMS ACTIONS WERE LEGAL BECAUSE HE WAS PRESIDENT
March 29, 1974
Earlier this month, former President Nixon was indicted for a charge of obstruction of justice and a charge of conspiracy for ordering the FBI under L. Patrick Gray at the time to halt the investigation into Watergate. Nixon's defense: the president's actions were legal because he was president, and a president cannot be indicted for his actions in the office. So says the former President's personal lawyer, Herbert Kalmbach, in his efforts to craft a defense for Nixon at trial, which is expected to start sometime in June. For his protection, the former President was placed under house arrest in a Washington, D.C. townhouse instead of a prison cell, where he is awaiting trial. "We will appeal this case to the Supreme Court for review," Kalmbach said. "The Democrats under President Muskie and Attorney General Christopher are leading a Salem style witch hunt against President Nixon because he had the nerve to defeat one of their favorite sons, Hubert Humphrey, in 1968." Nixon could not be reached for comment, but was overheard by Post reporters telling Kalmbach, "If the President does it, it is not illegal." Legal experts believe that Nixon cannot use his old office as a cloak to prevent prosecution. "There is no precedent that a President cannot be indicted for illegal actions conducted while in office," said Archibald Cox, when contacted by the Post. "All citizens are responsible for their actions, from the everyday man to the President of the United States. If President Muskie committed illegal acts like President Nixon apparently did, he should also face the consequences of the law."
AGNEW PLEADS GUILTY, FACES LONG TERM OF HOUSE ARREST
April 10, 1974
Vice President Agnew pleaded guilty to three charges of bribery and one charge of tax evasion while he served in the White House under President Nixon. He reportedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Lester Matz, a Baltimore engineering contractor, for political favors and connections to the Maryland governor's mansion and later the White House. George Beall obtained an immunity agreement for Matz to freely testify against Agnew, which was the final blow to Agnew's defense team, who recommended he submit a guilty plea to reduce the legal punishment he potentially faced, which included years in prison. Agnew was forced to pay a fine of $50,000 for the tax evasion charge, and six months of house arrest for the bribery conviction. "We knew that the Vice President was in trouble when the evidence was revealed to us," Agnew's lawyer George White said. "We did not want to see a Vice President sent to jail, so we arranged this plea with the court in the hopes that he would avoid prison, and we succeeded in that effort." George Beall, the United States district attorney for Maryland, was glad to see the result. "We proved that all Americans can be held accountable, even the second most powerful man in the land," Beall said. "This conviction sends a message to other politicians: Do not take bribes or you will be caught."
PARAMOUNT TO RODDENBERRY: WE WANT MORE KLINGONS
April 16, 1974
After reviewing Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek movie pitch, Paramount Pictures executive vice president Robert Evans liked aspects of the script that dealt with the villainous Klingons from the television series. Unfortunately for Roddenberry, Evans was not enamored with the rest of the plot, and told Roddenberry to center the story around the Klingons. "I was a little disappointed in what Evans thought of the script," Roddenberry said. "I can commission another script to be written, but I would like to avoid a straight out war between the Enterprise and the Klingons. I believe Star Trek is more creative than that." Evans told Roddenberry that the potential script,
Planet of the Titans, is worthy of a television production, but the costs to rebuild the Enterprise set were prohibitive at this time and the project would have to be tabled for another year, in order to see where the studio's bottom line is after the
Godfather sequel. "We would need to spend almost $2 million to just build the sets for the Enterprise and the scenery for whatever planets the potential movie script places on us," an anonymous source at Paramount said. "Mr. Bluhdorn is willing to spend money on Star Trek, but he wants the movie done with a moderate budget." Evans is considering moving the Roddenberry script to Paramount's television division and will remain patient for another script that he finds acceptable for a big budget feature, with its special effects costs. "There is the possibility that we could film two movies consecutively, one for television as a pilot, and one for the theater," Roddenberry said.
NIMOY: I AM LEONARD NIMOY, NOT MR. SPOCK
April 1974
Leonard Nimoy will be releasing an autobiography of his whirlwind acting career this summer. Entitled
I Am Not Spock, Nimoy seeks to differentiate himself from his most famous character. Despite the fact that he has won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for
Fiddler on the Roof, Nimoy claims that everyone still thinks he is Spock. "Not even an Academy Award could prevent some of the typecasting I've faced," Nimoy said. "I am indebted to Star Trek and the fans of the show for catapulting me to worldwide fame, but the fans must also give back some and recognize that Spock is portrayed by Leonard Nimoy, and not a real person." As for his current projects, Nimoy is proud of his portrayal as Thomas Buchanan in Paramount's
The Great Gatsby, and feels that he performed that role as well as Motel Kamozil in
Fiddler. "I enjoy making movies because I get paid a lot more for a lot less work," Nimoy said. "However, I still like to make appearances on television if the role suits me, and I have no problem once again being Spock in a cartoon." When asked about a potential Star Trek movie, Nimoy said, "Who knows? I'm sure the fans of the show want to see us all back in a movie, but that's between Roddenberry and Paramount."
Note 1: Bruce Dern played Thomas Buchanan in 1974's
The Great Gatsby. ITTL Nimoy plays him.
Note 2: I Am Not Spock was released in 1975 IRL.
Note 3: Planet of the Titans was considered by Paramount but rejected IRL.
Note 4: President Ford pardoned Nixon because he feared that a trial would rip the nation apart should Nixon be indicted. ITTL, Nixon has no such protection.
Note 5: IRL, Agnew only pleaded guilty to one tax evasion charge. He received a $10,000 fine and three years of unsupervised probation for taking kickbacks in October 1973.
