Craig Gilbert created the seminal 1973 series An American Family and never made another show or movie — probably because that experience haunts him even today. Gilbert, now 85 and recovering from an accidental Mucinex overdose, says in a surprising New Yorker interview, “I didn’t know what I had wrought. I still don’t.” He calls HBO’s Cinema Verite, in which James Gandolfini portrays him, “essentially fallacious,” particularly the part of the film that suggests his relationship with Pat Loud (played by Diane Lane in the movie) was inappropriate. He hired a lawyer to represent him and the Loud family against the station, though he did not sue. “An American Family changed the lives of the Louds, and it changed my life,” Gilbert says. “It was pretty damn tumultuous, and I don’t want to go over it anymore.” [ NYer]
