By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

There are a number of reasons why I shouldn't be writing about the fuss over Joe Moore's play.

I used to work in local TV news and was for a short time a bit player in Joe's newsroom. I write plays, none of which have had the cachet of a weekend of well-attended shows at the Hawai'i Theatre.

It would be easy to point at me and say "Sour grapes" or "She's just jealous."

So fire those fingers up and start pointing, because the worst reason for not writing about Joe's play is because I'm afraid of what he, or anyone else, might say.

Joe Moore's "Dirty Laundry" also features Sherry Chock Wong and Matthew Pedersen. Similarities between the play and the movie "News at Eleven" have been noted. Advertiser library photo

I saw the play. Then I saw the movie. I saw many, many similarities. Specific plot points, whole chunks of dialogue, things that, in my opinion, were more than "inspired by" a movie he says he saw just once years and years ago.

I called Joe and I told him just that. This is what he said: "I have no doubt there are a couple of lines from that movie that have popped up in my script, and maybe more than a couple. But damn it, I did not sit down with a tape or a transcript and go through there and pick out lines for my play."

After speaking with him, I have to say, for what it's worth, I believe he had no intention of doing something wrong. Perhaps he didn't realize the extent to which he borrowed from the original, or that that sort of borrowing is more than "inspired by." He does say he looked to "News at Eleven" as a "vehicle to use as a guidepost or as outline or a rough form" in writing his play.

Which brings up very interesting questions for writers, journalists and students with looming term papers:

How much is too much? Where is the line crossed? How heavily can you lean on source material? At what point do you need to credit the original author? At what point are you using so much of the original work that you need to buy the rights?

It's one thing to talk generally about how literary and dramatic works often draw upon earlier work, that whole "West Side Story is a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet" lecture that you get in Beginning Playwriting or Screenwriting 101.

It's another thing to see "Dirty Laundry" and "News at Eleven" side by side.

The Associated Press stylebook briefing on copyright guidelines reads:

"The broadest limitation on the reach of copyright law is that ideas and facts are never protected by a copyright. Rather, the copyright pertains only to the literary, musical, graphic or artistic form in which an author expresses intellectual concepts ... The subsequent author may not ... employ the same or essentially the same combination of words, structure, and tone which comprises the expression of those facts."

It's a matter of degree.

You can't take the plot and dialogue from "Star Wars," change the droids to hamsters and Princess Leia to Prince and say that it's your work.

Maybe Joe didn't know, didn't realize. But he should have.

So why is it a big deal?

It's a big deal because the theme of the play is journalistic integrity, because Joe Moore is "Hawai'i's Most Trusted Newsman," and because the "someone" who brought this to light was University of Hawai'i journalism professor Gerald Kato, who saw the play, knew the movie, and lectures on ethics and plagiarism. Kato didn't write an anonymous note or make an anonymous phone call. Kato was quoted on the record.

It's a big deal because students get kicked out of school for such borrowed work, mistakenly borrowed or otherwise.

So maybe some good can come from all this.

How about an evening at the UH Campus Center Ballroom, a discussion moderated by Chris Lee of the film school and Tom Brislin of the journalism department?

Let's have a side-by-side comparison; have Joe's play read out loud by a group of actors followed by a showing of the movie "News at Eleven."

Let's have a panel of experts; media and intellectual property attorneys, professors who teach journalism ethics. Let's even invite "News at Eleven" screenwriter Mike Robe to come and speak.

Let's air out the dirty laundry. I'm sure teachers, students, writers and journalists could learn a lot from such a discussion. This is a great case study.

For his part, Joe is open to the idea, but first wants to hear back from Mr. Robe, whom he's tried to contact.

"Right now, this is an issue that primarily should be between he and I. I certainly didn't intend to use his work without permission and proper credit, but if he thinks I did, then we'll go from there.

"After my attempts to reach Robe, then I have no problems with a comparison of the two scripts because I am not only as interested but more interested than anyone to see how much of what is in my script and in his and maybe more importantly how much of my script is not in his script."

To be fair, there are a number of story points from "News at Eleven" that are not in "Dirty Laundry" (and vice versa), most significant of which is that the Martin Sheen character anchors the lowest-rated newscast in town.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.