Lucas/Ain't It Cool Imbroglio

Written by Eric Olsen
Published October 16, 2002

Do not mess with George Lucas, or he will fry your ass:

    A 30-year-old former employee of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' northern California facility has been arrested for allegedly stealing images, storyboards and video files from "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones," including, according to the Marin Independent Journal, the near-completed copy of the film that was clandestinely screened for Aintitcool.com critic Harry Knowles a full two months before the picture's bow back in May.

    Shea O'Brien Foley, employed at NBC's facilities department in Burbank, was taken into custody Oct. 8 after the ever-secretive Lucasfilm staff tracked the March leak of the film to a screen name "Shay" used in Star Wars chat rooms. Foley worked at the Marin county-based Lucasfilm as a production assistant when the "Clones" copy made its way to Knowles.

    Foley was reportedly released Monday from Los Angeles County jail, after posting $200,000 in bail.

    Knowles, the online curmudgeon who built his name leaking advance spoilers and commentary on pictures in the works, is reportedly not being targeted by the investigation.

Harry, who is a big scary hairy fat guy, has this to say about that:
    Hey folks, Harry here... Ya gotta love the way the press works. On the front page of AICN for the past two weeks I've had the location and phone number of where I would be should anyone needed to reach me while I was in SPAIN. Of course, none of these finally atuned news reporters actually bothered to click on the story HARRY IN SITGES for a clue how to get a hold of me about this recent Lucasfilm Arrest story.

    Now at last perhaps some of you folks will realize I was telling you the truth when I told y'all that LucasFilm had no clue I had seen the film that weekend, now you know that a very serious investigation began afterwards. I've heard tabs on this investigation from sources in and around LucasFilm for the past... well ever since March 17th, 2002 when my review went up. Now this guy that they arrested, Shea O'Brien Foley, is somebody that was apparently caught in the investigation as having a great deal of materials ranging it seems from Storyboards to Audio to clips to score... all sorts of stuff. Apparently though, he did not have the film. Shea O'Brien Foley is someone I've never met, heard from or been contacted by. In some articles they talk about him having frequented Star Wars Chatrooms under the alias of 'Shay'. Well, I know this may shock you folks, but I've never been to a Star Wars chatroom, though at times, AICN's own chatroom seems to resemble one. AICN's own chatroom is the only room I ever visit online.

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Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.
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Lucas/Ain't It Cool Imbroglio
Published: October 16, 2002
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Section: Video
Filed Under: Video: News
Writer: Eric Olsen
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#1 — October 16, 2002 @ 19:53PM — Steve Rhodes [URL]


This is Harry's early review of Clones (which was far too kind).

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