LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Die Hard" director John McTiernan was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000 on Monday for lying during the wiretapping investigation of Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano and about his involvement in the wiretapping of producer Charles Roven. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer gave a stinging rebuke from the bench before sentencing McTiernan, saying "the defendant doesn't feel the law applies to him."
McTiernan declined the opportunity to address the court or speak with reporters outside the courtroom, but free pending an appeal, he spoke to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Hollywood Reporter: You were given the opportunity to speak before sentencing, but you chose not to. Why?
John McTiernan: My lawyers said that if I said one thing that's really on my mind, than they could guarantee that I was going to prison right now. I was all prepared. They spent basically 36 hours pleading with me. (I was told,) "You'll feel good for about five minutes, and then you'll curse yourself for a long time afterwards."
THR: What would you have said?
McTiernan: I'm not saying anything. There wasn't any point in saying anything in that venue; that venue wasn't listening.
THR: There were pointed comments from the bench about not eating "aged cheese and fine wine" in prison. Where did that come from?
McTiernan: (Judge Fischer) was trying to ridicule me. I take a very heavy-duty antidepressant; I've lived on it for 35 years, and it has heavy dietary restrictions. And what they did was take the silliest of them and put them in. It was some ridicule the prosecution had put in their papers, and she just repeated it over.
THR: You'll be appealing?
McTiernan: We're already filing the papers. I've already paid the appeals lawyer.
THR: Are you optimistic that you will not serve the sentence?
McTiernan: I didn't start this because I was afraid to go to jail. It would have been much easier to go to jail. And less expensive. And some of the minimum-security prison camps are not bad, and there are actually interesting people there. And I have managed to live my life not being too afraid of new experiences, including going off to a federal prison for four months. That isn't why I started this fight. I started because these people have less respect for the law than they accuse me of having.
