More than 40 years ago, famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward published “Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi,” a biography of the late comedian that angered his widow and many of his close friends, including Bill Murray.
After the book was published, Rolling Stone reported that the book became controversial with Murray, Belushi’s widow and others because it featured “432 pages of cold facts” about the late “Saturday Night Live” star, “the majority of them drug related and ugly.”
It’s clear that Murray’s anger has continued to simmer over the decades. It resurfaced in a recent podcast interview with Joe Rogan, followed by a confrontation he had with Woodward that continues to be the talk of Washington, D.C., according to a new report in the New Yorker.
The confrontation occurred in early March at a star-studded event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the New York Post also reported. Murray and Woodward were there with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and other luminaries to watch a screening of a new documentary on Katherine Graham, the Washington Post’s legendary publisher. Graham oversaw the paper’s coverage of Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, led by Woodward and Carl Bernstein, which came to define the paper’s golden gate.
But before the event, Murray did an interview on Rogan’s podcast, during which he explained why he became disenchanted with Woodward’s Watergate stories and even began wonder if he and Bernstein “framed Nixon.” Murray said he was left to question Woodward’s journalistic integrity because of what he “did” to Belushi in “Wired.”
In 1982, 33-year-old Belushi was found dead of an overdose of heroin and cocaine at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. Belushi and Murray were close friends and starred together on “Saturday Night Live.”
Murray called Woodward’s reporting on Belushi “criminal” and “cruel.” He said, “I read like five pages of ‘Wired,’ and I went, ‘Oh my God. They framed Nixon.’”
“If this is what he writes about my friend that I’ve known, you know, for half of my adult life, which is completely inaccurate, talking to like, the people of the outer, outer circle, getting the story – what the hell could they have done to Nixon?” Murray continued, as he claimed that Woodward used sources for his book who were not close to Belushi.
Murray also said that Woodward’s book “tore down my friend. Just the title alone. It was cold.” He furthermore suggested that Woodward’s unflattering portrayal of Belushi stemmed from jealously, saying that Belushi is the most famous person from Wheaton, Illinois — while Woodward is only the third most famous from the same town, trailing football player Harold “Red” Grange.
Woodward clearly got wind of Murray’s criticism of him on Rogan’s podcast. After the screening of “Becoming Katharine Graham,” the journalist and author, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Watergate, found Murray in a large gallery where guests had drifted to a reception, according to the New Yorker. He interrupted Murray while he was in conversation with Klobuchar to defend his work.
“Sometimes we learn by talking,” Woodward was heard saying, according to the New Yorker. Murray turned away, and Buffet’s publicist quickly intervened. A photo of the confrontation was shared on X by former Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, who wrote, “Bill Murray and Bob Woodward had words about Woodward’s Belushi book tonight at the Kennedy Center.”
On Rogan’s show, Murray said that Woodward asked to interview him for the book but he said, “I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I didn’t like the way it smelled funny from day one, you know.”
As Murray noted, Belushi’s wife, Judy Belushi Pisano, initiated the project, shared her diaries with Woodward and encouraged her husband’s friends to talk to him, according to Rolling Stone. Above all else, she hoped for a sympathetic biography. Instead, Belushi Pisano, who died last year at age 73, slammed the book, saying, “The man in ‘Wired’ is not the man I knew.”
Dan Ackroyd denounced the book as “exploitation” and “trash,” while Jack Nicholson called Woodward “a ghoul” and “an exploiter of emotionally disturbed widows.” Both Ackroyd and Nicholson said they expected much better of Woodward. “Here’s a guy who has a reputation, right?” Nicholson said, adding: “I’ve obviously seen this kind of work before — it’s the lowest.”
As Woodward faced a torrent of backlash from Belushi’s celebrity friends, he insisted that his book was true and that he relied on facts to piece together his story — and to tell a larger story about Hollywood. He told Rolling Stone that most of the people he interviewed couldn’t stay away from the subject of drugs when talking about Belushi.
“Over and over, he would say that ‘Wired’ simply held a mirror up to Hollywood, but Hollywood was unable to look. Hence, the outcry,” Rolling Stone reported. Woodward also told Rolling Stone that he was “sad and hurt” that Belushi’s widow was so upset. “But I didn’t go to her as a friend. I went as a journalist.”