Leonardo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood –
the star and director of the upcoming biopic J. Edgar –
asked FBI officials whether J. Edgar Hoover was gay, USA
Today reported.
Assistant FBI Director Mike Kortan said
that in separate meetings arranged by Eastwood and DiCaprio, the men
asked about the former FBI director's sexuality.
“Vague rumors and fabrications have
cropped up from time to time,” Kortan recalls telling the men, “but
there is no evidence in the historical record on this issue.”
“We provided information so that
their story could be accurate,” he added. “What they did with
it, as with any production, has been entirely in their hands.”
In previous interviews, Eastwood and
DiCaprio, who plays the title role of Hoover, have
said they were not sure whether Hoover was gay.
In J. Edgar, which opens the
25th edition of the AFI Festival in Hollywood, California
on November 3 and nationwide six days later, Armie Hammer, the
25-year-old co-star of last year's The Social Network, plays
Clyde Tolson, Hoover's co-worker, life-long confidant and alleged
lover.
Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, a former top
aide to Hoover, said he told DiCaprio that he “never saw any
evidence of [a romantic relationship] whatsoever.”
In one scene from the film's trailer,
however, Hoover
and Tolson are seen holding hands.