Before satellites, cable television, 24-hour news services, the Internet, hundreds of TV channels and thousands of magazines and newspapers, the country turned to one man for information: Walter Winchell.

With 55 million people -- two-thirds of the nation's adult population -- listening to his weekly radio broadcast or reading his daily column, Winchell became the most feared and powerful American journalist of his day - maybe even of this century. For more than 30 years, Winchell's unparalleled reach circumvented the traditional power brokers and spoke directly to "Mr. and Mrs. America," delivering an intriguing, controversial new kind of news that changed the rules of journalism forever: the gossip column.

A self-proclaimed champion of the people, Winchell believed that revealing the secrets of the rich and famous was the ultimate power and liberty in a democracy, one he consistently used to his advantage. Winchell reported his news in a unique and dizzying rat-tat-tat style full of vivid prose, witty innuendo and populist opinions. From 1925 through the 1960s, Winchell colorfully blurred the line between tabloid and hard news, redefining modern journalism in the burgeoning age of celebrity by blasting the private lives of public people wide open.

Stanley Tucci stars in the title role of the HBO Pictures Presentation of a Paul Mazursky Film, WINCHELL, making its world premiere SATURDAY, NOV. 21 at 8:00 p.m. (ET), exclusively on HBO. Directed by Paul Mazursky (Academy Award(r) nominee for writing 1989's "Enemies, A Love Story"), the film also stars Paul Giamatti ("The Truman Show"), Glenne Headly ("Mr. Holland's Opus") and Christopher Plummer ("12 Monkeys").

Other playdates: Nov. 24 (8:00 p.m.) and 29 (10:00 p.m.), and Dec. 2 (11:30 p.m.), 8 (11:00 p.m.), 11 (4:55 a.m.) and 14 (10:00 p.m.).

Rob Fried ("Godzilla") is executive producer, Rich Zinman ("Rudy") is co-executive producer, and Stan Wlodkowski ("Longtime Companion") is producer of this Fried Films Production. The script is by Scott Abbott ("Breach of Contract"), based on the book "Walter Winchell: His Life and Times," by Herman Klurfeld, who was a Winchell ghostwriter for nearly 30 years.

Winchell's motto: "Winchell...HE SEES ALL...HE KNOWS ALL"

WINCHELL chronicles nearly seven decades in the life of one of America's most controversial and powerful men, following him from poverty to vaudeville to newspaper reporting. With his transformation from a New York-based entertainment and gossip columnist into the country's most influential political and social commentator, everyone from presidents to movie stars listened to and relied on him. His detractors criticized him for his unprecedented - and often unsettling - mix of gossip and news, not to mention the selective way he wielded power.

"Fifty years ago, Walter Winchell was receiving criticism for reporting stories that today would be reported by 'respected journalists' on 'Nightline' or in The New York Times," says Rob Fried, executive producer of WINCHELL. "I think it's difficult to know where the line between gossip and journalism exists. I think much of what you see today has crossed over appropriate boundaries. That's probably the way many felt about Walter Winchell at the time."

Winchell's phenomenal success was both a cause and effect of a changing American culture and growing media, which bestowed increasing power on the rich and famous just for being rich and famous. Given Winchell's impoverished childhood and his struggle to succeed, he had a strong natural affinity for the fears, hopes and desires of "Mr. and Mrs. America." His uncanny ability to combine this understanding with changing times elevated Winchell to a class all his own.

"He was the first guy to take celebrity to task in a newspaper," says Stanley Tucci, who portrays Winchell. "But the thing about Winchell's style, which I think makes him different from the type of reporting we see today, is Winchell really loved the common man. He really loved the man or woman who would go and work hard every day for their kids. In many ways, he was very socialistic. He always stood up for the working class." As much as Winchell championed the common man, he also boasted a list of admirers, critics, friends, sources and lovers that read like an international Who's Who. He traveled the seasonal circuits from New York to Hollywood to Miami and Europe, collecting gossip, news, issues and agendas for his stories. His impact was so pervasive that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra and many others asked for his help.

"As we show in our film, President Roosevelt asked Winchell to assist him with the war effort," says director Paul Mazursky. "Roosevelt wanted Winchell to help prepare the public for the Nazi horror. And Winchell did because he was a man who cared about such things." Herman Klurfeld, Winchell's ghostwriter for almost 30 years, on whose book the film is based, calls Winchell's one-man war with the Nazis "his finest hour."

"He was much more than a gossip columnist," notes Klurfeld. "He had an amazing and favorable impact on history as well. Winchell played a major role in fighting the menace of Nazism. Long before the public woke up to what was happening in Europe, Winchell's extensive network of sources had told him of what was occurring, and he told the country."

In 1938, Winchell gave the first of many broadcasts outlining the events in Germany. He said, "You won't see it in a newsreel of Chamberlain signing the Munich Pact, because the cameras are all filming the shoulder-to-shoulder rows of gorgeous soldiers, and not their boots goose-stepping over the broken glass of Jewish shop windows. Our country, which governs from the bottom up, must take to task the tyranny that destroys from the top down. This dictator will one day discover the memory of a people oppressed is always longer than the road to glory, and the voice of freedom will be ringing, even after the curses of the barbarians are forgotten."

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE

To tell Winchell's remarkable story required an epic approach, re-creating the look and feel of nearly seven decades, most notably New York in the '20s, '30s and '40s. To that end, Fried, Zinman and Mazursky assembled a team that included director of photography Robbie Greenberg, production designer Marcia Hinds, art director Bo Johnson, costume designer Hope Hanafin and makeup artist David Forrest.

"The film starts in 1905 and goes to the early '70s, so we're covering 70 years," Mazursky says. "That's tough, because it's not just period, but periods, requiring different costumes, hair, makeup and locations."

For Fried, who has long wanted to make a film about Winchell, one of the attractions of the story was re-creating the high society culture of New York from Prohibition to World War II. "I love the look of New York in the '30s, '40s and '50s," Fried says. "We really don't see that much in films these days. Visually, it was highly stylized, with the 21 Club and the Stork Club and Broadway, a real society crowd. Walter Winchell was right in the hub of all of that. It was very flavorful and dramatic stuff."

The process of aging Tucci from his early twenties to his sixties was one of the film's biggest challenges. Instead of prostethics, the filmmakers opted to use lighting, makeup paints and latex to achieve the desired effect. In the end, Tucci not only endured a half-dozen makeup looks, but wore two different wigs, as well as having his hair stripped of color and dyed white for the older Winchell look.

Any film about Walter Winchell also has to have a very particular sound: that famous voice. While researching the role Tucci discovered that Winchell brought his voice up three octaves for broadcasts, but usually spoke in a slower, lower register.

"It's a little daunting to try to re-create Winchell," said Tucci. "He was a well-known figure with a very distinctive voice. We don't know his mannerisms as well as his voice, since he was a man of radio. But you have to be careful. You don't want to do an imitation because there still has to be emotional substance, and that comes from you. You get the voice as close as you can and then let it take you where it takes you. And this voice takes you pretty far because it's fairly extreme."

"Stanley's a brilliant actor, and he works from a simple truth, and he's there," said Mazursky. "He's a wonderful, wonderful performer."For Zinman, having Mazursky, Tucci, Giamatti, Headly, Plummer and others was a dream come true. "Rob brought the project to HBO and from there it follows very much in line with what Stanley Donen said at the Academy Awards this year, which is: 'The job of a producer is to go get yourself a great script, a great director and great actors and then get out of the way.' It's worked beautifully on this film."

BIOS

Stanley Tucci comes to the role of Winchell with a career that encompasses work as an actor, director, writer and producer. He performed in all four capacities in the current feature film "The Impostors." His acting credits include Woody Allen's recent "Deconstructing Harry," plus "Montana," "The Daytrippers," "Kiss of Death," "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" and "Billy Bathgate." Tucci received widespread critical attention with the feature film "Big Night," which he starred in, co-scripted and co-directed. Tucci received an Emmy(r) nomination for his performance in the Steven Bochco series "Murder One."Paul Giamatti, who plays Herman Klurfeld, has been seen in "The Truman Show," "Dr. Doolittle," "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Deconstructing Harry," "Private Parts," "The Negotiator" and "Saving Private Ryan."

Christopher Plummer, who plays President Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been seen in more than 60 films, including "12 Monkeys," "Dolores Claiborne," "Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country," "The Man ho Would Be King," "Wolf," "Malcolm X" and "The Sound of Music."

Glenne Headly, who plays Dallas, has appeared in such feature films as "Mr. Holland's Opus," "2 Days in the Valley," "Mortal Thoughts," "Dick Tracy," "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo," as well as the TV movie "Bastard Out of Carolina" and HBO Pictures' "And the Band Played On."

Paul Mazursky received an Oscar(r) nomination for Adapted Screenplay for "Enemies, A Love Story," which he also directed, produced and appeared in; he won a New York Film Critics Award for directing the film. He has had director, producer, writer and actor credits on such films as "The Pickle," "Scenes from a Mall," "Moon over Parador," "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," "Moscow on the Hudson," "Tempest," "An Unmarried Woman" and "Blume in Love." Mazursky's director, producer and writer credits include "Willie and Phil," "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" and "Harry and Tonto." He directed, wrote and appeared in "Alex in Wonderland" and directed and wrote "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." Most recently, Mazursky directed and appeared in "Faithful" and has appeared in HBO Pictures' "Weapons of Mass Distraction," plus "Touch," "2 Days in the Valley," "Miami Rhapsody," "Love Affair," "Carlito's Way" and "Man Trouble."

Rob Fried is the founder and president of Fried Films; his previous credits include such films as "Rudy," "Only You" and "So I Married an Axe Murderer." He also produced the Oscar(r)-winning 1991 Live Action Short-Subject "Session Man." As president and CEO of Savoy Pictures, Fried was responsible for such films as "Circle of Friends," "Soul Food" and "A Thin Line Between Love and Hate," as well as the upcoming "American History X" and "A Simple Plan." Executive producer of "Godzilla," Fried's upcoming HBO projects include "Black Cat Run."

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