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The film, directed by “Crown” alum Philip Martin, follows BBC producer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) as she secures an interview for BBC Newsnight host Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell). The focus of the interview is the allegations that Andrew sexually abused an underage girl who was being trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein; Matlin also questions the Duke of York about his relationship with both Epstein and Epstein’s confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Scoop” is not a one-for-one retelling. For that, you could pull up the original 49-minute interview or perhaps wait for the upcoming Amazon series, “A Very Royal Scandal,” about the same incident, to see how that version of events fares. (Instead of Sewell and Anderson, it stars Michael Sheen and Ruth Wilson in the lead roles.) “Scoop” edits the on-camera showdown into a 10-minute sequence and dramatizes the events leading up to the bombshell broadcast. What does it leave in? What does it leave out? I’ll tell you.
1. It leaves “The Firm” alone
One of Maitlis’ most scathing lines in the BCC interview is when she observed that Epstein “was brought right into the heart of the royal family at your invitation.” The Duke of York accepted the blame, stressing that it was not a decision made by the family, it was a mistake he made individually.
Again at the end of the interview, Maitlis cites the royal family, asking, “You’ve faced questions today on a very, very raw subject. There has never been an interview like this before. I wonder what that tells us about the way the royal family now confronts these difficult situations. Has there been a sea change?” “Scoop” leaves out these questions, focusing in the interview scene on Andrew’s culpability rather than the impact on the reputation of the royal family as a unit.
2. It ignores conspiracy theories
Maitlis raises two conspiracy theories that “Scoop” leaves out: that Epstein didn’t die by suicide (two months before the BBC interview took place) and that Epstein himself hired the photographer who took photos of him and Andrew walking together in Central Park. The images were taken in 2010 after Epstein’s first conviction and are believed to be part of the reason Andrew stepped down from the role of UK trade envoy in 2011.
The film opens with photographer Jae Donnelly (Connor Swindells) tracking down Andrews and Epstein to get a shot of them together, complete with a dramatic running scene. Eventually, British tabloids would speculate that the occurrence was either arranged by Epstein or that he was aware of it. When asked about this in the actual interview, Andrew denied that Epstein would’ve done that.
The larger conspiracy theory involves the questions surrounding Epstein’s death by hanging. When asked if he believed that Epstein took his own life, Prince Andrew mentions an unbroken bone in the neck pointed to by many skeptics, but says that he trusts the coroner. Neither of these theories are touched on in “Scoop.”
3. It skips Andrew’s bizarre comment about sex
When asked if he had had sexual contact with any young women being trafficked by Epstein, Andrew gave this response, which is not included in the film: “If you’re a man, it is a positive act to have sex with somebody. You have to take some positive action, so therefore if you try to forget it’s very difficult to try to forget positive action and I do not remember anything.”
Would that have been important to the film? No. Is it a stunning string of 43 words? Yes.
In both the real-life interview and the dramatized version, Andrew has a baffling response to the accusations made against him by Virginia Giuffre (nee Roberts), who alleged that Andrew danced with her and bought her drinks at Tramp, a private, members-only nightclub located on Jermyn Street in London, before having sex with her.
Andrew claims that while he has frequented Tramp, her accusation that he bought her drinks couldn’t be true. Why? Because he doesn’t drink and he doesn’t even know where the bar in Tramp is. He also sticks to his story that he couldn’t have been there because he was at home with his daughters after getting Pizza Express in Woking.
2. Prince Andrew’s weird sweating thing
Giuffre also alleged that while she was dancing with Andrew, he was sweating profusely. His defense? That he didn’t sweat because he suffered an “overdose of adrenaline” during the Falklands War as a result of being shot at.
Medical experts, such as physician James Hamblin in an article for the Atlantic, assert that this is a “dubious” claim. The British press also worked hard to disprove Andrew’s claims.
3. The infamous park walk
Perhaps the answer that startled audiences the most was Andrew’s explanation for being seen with Epstein in Central Park after the latter’s 2008 guilty plea for procuring an underage sex worker.
Andrew claimed that he went to visit Epstein in New York, stay in his home and attend a dinner party at his residence all to tell the financier they had to stop being friends. He claimed that during the walk that was photographed, he was telling Epstein they had to end their association, though he stayed with him for several more days.
In the film, Sewell’s Andrew appears chipper after the interview, giving Maitlis a tour and beaming over his performance. Then he watches himself on TV, shocked, morose and silent.
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