Reports: Iran mulls suing Hollywood over 'Argo'

3/12/2013
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHRAN, Iran  — Iranian media say authorities are planning to sue Hollywood over the Oscar-winning “Argo” because of the movie's allegedly “unrealistic portrayal” of the country.

Several news outlets, including the pro-reform Shargh daily, said today that French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre is in Iran for talks with officials over how and where to file the lawsuit. Coutant-Peyre is also the lawyer for notorious Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal.

The decision on the lawsuit came after a group of Iranian cultural officials and movie critics screened the film in a closed audience in a Tehran theater late Monday.

Iranian officials in February dismissed “Argo” as pro-CIA, anti-Iran propaganda.

The movie is based on the escape of six American hostages from the besieged U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.