The CIA in Hollywood

How the Agency Shapes Film and Television

Tricia Jenkins

CHOICE Magazine Outstanding Academic Title

Narrated by Caroline Miller

Available from Audible

Book published by University of Texas Press

What’s your impression of the CIA? A bumbling agency that can’t protect its own spies? A rogue organization prone to covert operations and assassinations? Or a dedicated public service that advances the interests of the United States? Astute TV and movie viewers may have noticed that the CIA’s image in popular media has spanned this entire range, with a decided shift to more positive portrayals in recent years. But what very few people know is that the Central Intelligence Agency has been actively engaged in shaping the content of film and television, especially since it established an entertainment industry liaison program in the mid-1990s.

The CIA in Hollywood offers the first full-scale investigation of the relationship between the Agency and the film and television industries. Tricia Jenkins draws on numerous interviews with the CIA’s public affairs staff, operations officers, and historians, as well as with Hollywood technical consultants, producers, and screenwriters who have worked with the Agency, to uncover the nature of the CIA’s role in Hollywood. In particular, she delves into the Agency’s and its officers’ involvement in the production of The Agency, In the Company of Spies, Alias, The Recruit, The Sum of All Fears, Enemy of the State, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, and more. Her research reveals the significant influence that the CIA now wields in Hollywood and raises important and troubling questions about the ethics and legality of a government agency using popular media to manipulate its public image.

Tricia Jenkins is an assistant professor in the Film, Television, and Digital Media Department at Texas Christian University. She has published several articles on the CIA in Hollywood and on the spy genre more broadly.

REVIEWS:

“In a fascinating, highly readable, and original new work, Tricia Jenkins takes on the seldom-explored topic of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) relationship with Hollywood…Enthusiastically written and incorporating effective, illustrative case studies, The CIA in Hollywood is definitely recommended to students of film, media relations, the CIA, and U.S. interagency relations.”

—Marks Montesclaros, H-War

“In a fascinating, highly readable, and original new work, Tricia Jenkins takes on the seldom-explored topic of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) relationship with Hollywood. ”

—HNet: Humanities and Social Sciences Online