If you haven't seen Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, George Clooney's directorial debut, or else read the memoir it was based on, then...go do so. They're both super good. The former has a creepy early performance by Michael Cera as a kid getting another small girl to suck him off, and Sam Rockwell plays him as a charming-yet-morally-compromised adult. The book, meanwhile, is even more staggering to behold. Not least of all because its story of a game show producer and host recruited as an assassin for the CIA is purportedly all real. Or at least that's the line Chuck Barris has been towing with regards to his so-called "unauthorised autobiography". The confirmed biography of Barris is impressive, if a little prosaic in comparison. Getting his start in television as a staffer at NBC, he had his first big break as the co-writer of hit pop song Palisades Park in 1962. From there he had a stint writing the theme tunes to ABC game shows, which eventually lead to developing his own shows, including such iconic programmes as The Dating Game (adapted to Cilla Black's Blind Date over here) and the infamous Gong Show. The "unauthorised" version is that, whilst all this was happening, Barris was carrying out hits for the American government. The CIA denies Barris ever worked for them in any capacity, but in both the book and the film it's asserted that he worked as an assassin for the spy organisation throughout the sixties and seventies, mainly knocking off Russian agents, with 33 confirmed kills in all. After the release of the movie, a spokesman said Barris' claims the CIA are "ridiculous. It's absolutely not true", but we want to believe.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
