WARNER Bros. stands accused of making empty promises to provide prosthetic limbs to orphaned African amputees and then reneging so that the studio’s movie "Blood Diamond" could get extra publicity. During filming of the flick, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, producers shipped in 27 teenage and child amputees – victims of tribal warfare – from surrounding hospitals to appear as extras. In addition to paying the children day rates for their work, the producers – touched by the kids’ tragic circumstances – promised to fit all of them with prosthetic limbs after shooting wrapped in June. But they’re still waiting. Young Nkululo Mnisi – whose arms and legs were cut off by machete-wielding rebels – used to be taunted by cruel classmates as "baboon" because of the way he ran on his stumps and crutches. Mnisi told a South African newspaper that the dream that kept him going was the promise of getting artificial limbs so he’d be able to play soccer like a normal child. But months after filming ended, Mnisi and his fellow amputees were still waiting. When they asked Warner Bros. about the promised prosthetics, they were allegedly told, "You will have to wait for December, when the movie comes out, so we can get some publicity out of it." A local African charity, Eastern Cape, came to the rescue when it heard of the amputees’ cruelly dashed hopes, and outfitted them with limbs paid for by the organization. Eastern Cape has said that if Warner Bros. does finally come through with the money, it will go to 27 other deserving amputees. A rep for Warner Bros. told Page Six, "We’re working on it." Meanwhile, The L.A. Times got it wrong when it reported that the DeBeers diamond cartel had demanded a disclaimer in the picture about so-called "conflict diamonds," which fund various African warlords. A rep for DeBeers said, "No one at DeBeers asked the filmmakers for a disclaimer or any other change in ‘Blood Diamond.
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I will boycott this movie if it is true.
