The Macon Telegraph, Georgia via NewsEdge Corporation : Nov. 11--MACON, Ga.--It's billed as a movie drama, based on a true story, that shows the psychological terror former Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. employee Jeffrey Wigand faced when he blew the wh

Released this past weekend, "The Insider" finished No. 4 at the box office with $6.7 million in ticket sales. The $68-million movie has a high-profile actor and what many reviewers say is a shot at an Oscar nomination. But the movie's also got a bunch of lies, said Mark Smith, a spokesman for Brown & Williamson who was in Macon on Tuesday to talk about inaccuracies in the movie. "They imply very specifically that Brown & Williamson threatened Jeffrey Wigand," Smith said. "That just did not happen. It's so dramatic and you have people of the stature of Al Pacino saying it's the truth. " At issue are scenes in the movie, distributed by Disney and Touchstone pictures, that show Wigand being followed by a shadowy figure at a golf course, and a death threat accompanied by a bullet that appears in Wigand's mailbox. The scene from the golf course is completely fictional. A letter and bullet did appear in Wigand's mail box, but an FBI affidavit suggests there is evidence that Wigand wrote the note himself and had his daughter place it in the mailbox, Smith said. "Not only did we not do it, but Jeffrey Wigand, according to the FBI, did it himself," Smith said. "It's just a little disturbing," Smith said. "You have a movie making these claims and portraying us in this way when it didn't happen this way. It's malicious. We're considering our options in terms of libel." The movie does include a disclaimer at the end saying that some of the scenes have been fictionalized. And in interviews, the film's director has stressed the movie is a drama with certain events fabricated to add effect. "It's too little too late when the movie runs a little note at the end that says some scenes are fictitious," Smith said. "It's grossly unfair. It's a disservice to history and the truth." He said he is concerned moviegoers will accept the film's sequence of events as fact. The tobacco company is in the process of surveying people who have seen " The Insider" to determine what damage the movie may have done to the company. "We have an awful lot of employees in Macon and we're very concerned that employees get the facts," Smith said. "We're trying to shine some light on the truth." Brown & Williamson is the third largest tobacco manufacturer in the United States, after Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

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