- News>
- Newspapers
Indecent Proposal in real life: The Hindustan Times
London, May 05: What Robert Redford offered for one night with Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, London businessman Brian Maccaba offered for a lifetime with schoolteacher Nathalie Attar: $1 million.
London, May 05: What Robert Redford offered for one night with Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, London businessman Brian Maccaba offered for a lifetime with schoolteacher Nathalie Attar: $1 million.
But what Moore and her husband in the film Woody Harrelson took, Nathalie and husband Alan Attar turned down. Plus they sued him for defamation.
Maccaba first met Nathalie when she got a teaching job at a Jewish infants' school run by a trust headed by Maccaba. After a while, he wrote a letter, called it Knocking on Heaven's Door, and sent it off to Nathalie. The letter described her as his "true soul mate" and offered Alan $1 million cash, tax-free, if he would "set her free"; he said the money was a "golden key" for Alan to regain his "bachelor freedom".
In the letter, Maccaba, 45, referred to himself as "the stranger" who would "love her for ever", "do anything for her. If only she was free." He suggested the money could send the couple's children to the best universities, sponsor some time for Alan as a playboy in the south of France.
The letter is now the prime exhibit in the defamation suit.
Nathalie, reported to have got very upset with the letter, turned to a rabbi. The rabbi accused Maccaba of being a notorious adulterer who chased young Jewish newly-weds. Maccaba has now sued the rabbi for slander.
In all, the Jewish community, dominant in the Golders Green area of north London where both the Attars and Maccaba live, is hugely outraged. Maccaba, 45 and married, and who converted to Judaism, is said to be very influential in the community. He has organised trips for senior Israeli figures to Britain and even helped in setting up meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Maccaba's friends say the note he wrote was, in fact, a poem that has been blown out of proportion and that it was examined by a Jewish court and it exonerated Maccaba of any impropriety.
But what Moore and her husband in the film Woody Harrelson took, Nathalie and husband Alan Attar turned down. Plus they sued him for defamation.
Maccaba first met Nathalie when she got a teaching job at a Jewish infants' school run by a trust headed by Maccaba. After a while, he wrote a letter, called it Knocking on Heaven's Door, and sent it off to Nathalie. The letter described her as his "true soul mate" and offered Alan $1 million cash, tax-free, if he would "set her free"; he said the money was a "golden key" for Alan to regain his "bachelor freedom".
In the letter, Maccaba, 45, referred to himself as "the stranger" who would "love her for ever", "do anything for her. If only she was free." He suggested the money could send the couple's children to the best universities, sponsor some time for Alan as a playboy in the south of France.
The letter is now the prime exhibit in the defamation suit.
Nathalie, reported to have got very upset with the letter, turned to a rabbi. The rabbi accused Maccaba of being a notorious adulterer who chased young Jewish newly-weds. Maccaba has now sued the rabbi for slander.
In all, the Jewish community, dominant in the Golders Green area of north London where both the Attars and Maccaba live, is hugely outraged. Maccaba, 45 and married, and who converted to Judaism, is said to be very influential in the community. He has organised trips for senior Israeli figures to Britain and even helped in setting up meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Maccaba's friends say the note he wrote was, in fact, a poem that has been blown out of proportion and that it was examined by a Jewish court and it exonerated Maccaba of any impropriety.