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Posted by Tom Doyle (Member # 1474) on 03-25-2004, 12:07 PM:
 
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/04/news040318_3.htm

The Durango Herald (Durango, Colorado)

March 18, 2004

Leaving Durango: Visiting Oscar-winner delayed

By Patricia Miller
Herald Staff Writer

Oscar-winning director and producer Maryann DeLeo missed her flight out of Durango on Monday because she wanted to carry the Oscar she had won only two weeks earlier onto the plane.

"There was a fiasco at the airport," said Calvin Cook, who is married to Durango Film Festival Executive Director Sofia van Surksum. "They wouldn't allow her to carry it through security."

Van Surksum is in Jordan, making her way toward Baghdad.

Mike Fierberg, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration in Denver, was sure the screeners at the Durango-La Plata County Airport did the right thing.

"I've never held an Oscar, but I'm told it has a heavy base," he said. "If you held it upside down, you could inflict substantial damage with it. …

"I admit it would not be a terribly logical thing for an Oscar winner to do," he added.

DeLeo won her Oscar on Feb. 29 for the documentary "Chernobyl Heart," a film about children born after the 1986 nuclear plant disaster. She came to Durango for the film festival.

Fierberg said the lengthy delay DeLeo went through was because local screeners were consulting "the higher-ups" - several levels of them. They went "pretty high up in the organization," he said.

Ron Dent, director of aviation at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, said, "I can't comment on security matters, though I'd like to. There were some red faces here."

Fierberg outlined optimum techniques for transporting valuable items through security.

"If I had an Oscar, I'd spend a couple of hundred dollars and make a custom case. Then I'd gate-check it," he said. Gate-checking is when passengers carry valuable luggage to the plane themselves. Then airline employees put it in the baggage hold. The passengers can collect their luggage as soon as they get off the plane.

Fierberg offered hockey analogies to show the dilemma security officials can face.

"If Peter Forsberg, who's the Colorado Avalanche center, wanted to get on the plane with his hockey stick, we wouldn't let him because it could be used as a weapon," he said.

Continuing his hockey analogies, Fierberg talked about the Stanley Cup, which is as close as hockey comes to the Holy Grail.

"The league has made a special case for it, and it always travels as checked baggage. People do everything they can to make sure it gets extra TLC," he said.

Festival staff said Wednesday that DeLeo and her Oscar were finally allowed to fly after a great deal of discussion and careful packaging.

Fierberg was sympathetic to the beleaguered filmmaker.

"God bless her," he said. "I understand that it's probably the first time she's traveled with it," he said. "I apologize if we caused any inconvenience, but please understand we have to put security first."
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-25-2004, 12:40 PM:
 
Why don't they outlaw fists on planes as well? I could do so much damage with my fists of fury. And if I had a pen, I could stab someone in the jugular. OMG we're all gonna die!

If we keep this crap up, the terrorists have won.[av=e]
 

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Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 03-25-2004, 12:47 PM:
 
I think that Mr. Fierberg has a point. A uniform application of security regulations is the only fair one, and necessary in this day and age. Even though Ms. DeLeo would not intend to hijack a plane with her Oscar, it could conceivably fall into the wrong hands.

I also agree that she should have a custom case made for it. If I won an Oscar I wouldn't just go tossing it into my carry-on luggage!
 

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Posted by Jeremy Fuentes (Member # 2135) on 03-25-2004, 01:14 PM:
 
But even if she had a carrying case for it and had it gate-checked, couldnt it still fall into the wrong hands. Like Joe's perhaps??
 

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-25-2004, 01:41 PM:
 
Everyone needs to stop being such sissies and start standing up for themselves, then we wouldnt even have to worry baout any of this stuff.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-25-2004, 05:26 PM:
 
Ehhhh, I would think if you were carrying a multi-pound statuette that could easily be used as a club, and you suddenly decided to start "standing up for yourself," you'd be on the fast track to jail no matter what country you were in.
 

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Posted by Floyd Justin Newton (Member # 1316) on 03-25-2004, 07:27 PM:
 
Hey Joe--

If your ass itches.... well, SCRATCH! We won't look.

fjn
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 03-25-2004, 08:36 PM:
 
Butt! Where would he start since he's ALL ass?

>>> Phil
 

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Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-26-2004, 03:22 AM:
 

quote:

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Ehhhh, I would think if you were carrying a multi-pound statuette that could easily be used as a club, and you suddenly decided to start "standing up for yourself," you'd be on the fast track to jail no matter what country you were in.

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