‘FRONT RUNNER’ MISSES THE REAL GARY HART STORY!
INSIDE THE SHOCKING HOLLYWOOD MOVIE COVER-UP
TWO-FACED Gary Hart’s illicit fling with Donna Rice not only destroyed his 1988 U.S. presidential bid — it inspired Hugh Jackman’s new movie “The Front Runner,” which pretends to give the inside scoop on the politician’s epic fall from grace. But longtime National ENQUIRER readers know this Hollywood hot take is only half the story!
Shockingly, the film never even mentions the blockbuster ENQUIRER cover photo of Donna, perched on Hart’s lap, cuddling the married former senator in the Bahamas — with the grinning love rat wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of the yacht they’d sailed there on — “Monkey Business.”
The damning picture sealed Hart’s image as a lying philanderer — and ruined any chance of him becoming commander-in-chief!
The slapdash movie is the latest chapter in a decadeslong history of the mainstream media ignoring — and denying — the unsurpassed accuracy of The ENQUIRER’s scrappy reporting.
In 1987, Hart was a shoo-in for the Democratic Party’s nomination, coming off as a charismatic, modern-day JFK with a picture-perfect family. But Hart and JFK shared another trait — both were shameless horndogs! When reporters confronted Hart with rumors about his womanizing ways, he invited them to tail him and promised they’d be “very bored.”
Miami newspaper scribes took up the challenge — and caught Donna slipping into Hart’s Washington,
D.C., townhouse! Amid the ensuing uproar, Hart bitterly suspended his campaign. That’s where “The Front Runner” ends — completely ignoring The ENQUIRER’s coup! Director Jason Reitman claimed the incendiary photo was inconsequential because by the time it was published, “All the Truth Is Out,” the book on which the movie is based, said the same thing.
But Bai’s own book blasts a hole in that theory. He writes that when The ENQUIRER fired its “Monkey Business” torpedo in the June 2, 1987, issue, a Gallup poll of the “even disgraced and out of sight, Hart finished first.” In fact, historians agree Hart — still denying he’d ever had an affair — was set to relaunch his campaign. But after The ENQUIRER cover, he was finally forced to admit he’d been unfaithful to his wife,
and his presidential dreams were over.
If Hart was surprised by
The ENQUIRER’s role in his downfall, so was the paper’s staff.
“We never did stories on politicians,” recalled Iain Calder, the publication’s editor at the time. “But when Hart invited the press to follow him … he had no idea what kind of a beast he had set loose!” “I had ten people working that story,” said Larry Haley, the editor in charge of the project.
A tipster in Los Angeles dished there were photos of Hart and Donna on the yacht taken by a Miami woman. Incredibly, in those pre-digital days, she’d gotten the film processed at a 60-minute photo shop!
Reaching the shutterbug by phone, Haley tried to talk her into selling her photos and story to The ENQUIRER. After days of deliberations, she finally agreed.
But it was almost too late for that week’s edition. As the clock ticked down, staffers nervously waited in The ENQUIRER’s office. Finally, photo editor John Cathcart burst through the newsroom doors with the iconic shot — and the team flew into action and changed history!
If not for The ENQUIRER — by Hart’s own admission — he could’ve become president, instead of George H.W. Bush. “There would have been no Gulf War. Everything would have changed,” Hart declared. Near the end of “The Front Runner,” a reporter moans that the mainstream media has become no better than
The National ENQUIRER. Actually, they weren’t even as good — they still can’t stand it!