Steven Spielberg's newspaper drama The Post has thrown a huge spotlight on Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Graham, who played a major role in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's coverage of the Watergate break-in, nonetheless doesn't appear in the film version of Woodward and Bernstein's own bestseller All the President's Men (1976). There have been misconceptions in articles like this one, which presume that Graham's absence was some kind of sexist slight:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/12/13/the_post_puts_katharine_graham_back_in_the_washington_post_s_history.html
The reality is much simpler and less dramatic.
In November, 2012, I attended a screening of All the President's Men at the Virginia Film Festival, which was followed by a fascinating Q&A with Woodward and Bernstein themselves, moderated by former Virginia Governor Gerald Beliles. Woodward and Bernstein stated that they wished that Graham was depicted in the film because she had staunchly supported them and was as important to the overall story as any Post employee recreated in the film. However, a scene had been written into the script featuring Graham, but Graham herself would not grant permission for her likeness to be used and the scene was cut and never filmed. Graham also did not allow filming at the Post's offices, which were instead meticulously recreated at the Burbank Studios in Los Angeles-- famously right down to actual trash imported from the Post's waste paper baskets. At that same Q&A, Woodward and Bernstein stated that Graham liked the finished film and said that she regretted that she hadn't let herself be represented in it.
Various incorrect accounts of the film's development claim that no scenes were written featuring Graham, but that actresses Patricia Neal and Lauren Bacall were considered to play her. In reality, there was a two- or three-page scene featuring Graham set in her office that appeared in an early draft of the script. Several years ago, I handled production manager E. Darrell Hallenbeck's archive on All the President's Men and discovered that scene, which was dropped from later drafts. At the time, I photographed those pages; when I can find them, I will post more details about them.
There you have it: Katharine Graham wasn't slighted by All the President's Men-- she simply opted out of it.
