MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Globe
By Tom McCarthy JUNE 15, 2017
Editor’s note: When we heard that “Spotlight’’ director Tom McCarthy would be picking up a screenwriting award at the Nantucket Film Festival just days after the Globe had decamped from its longtime Dorchester digs for new quarters in downtown Boston, something clicked. Who better to write about this venerable building, immortalized by his cinematic vision? What had he expected when he first walked into our newsroom a few years ago? What surprised/delighted/vexed him about what he found? And how on Earth had he managed to capture this place and its people so accurately? This is his answer.
I spent the better part of a year wandering the endless maze of hallways and stairways that make up the Boston Globe’s soon–to-be-abandoned headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard. The purpose of my frequent visits was research for my 2015 film, “Spotlight,” which chronicled the investigation by the Globe’s Spotlight team into the Catholic Church’s cover-up of the priest abuse scandal.
My co-writer Josh Singer and I had more luck managing the endless hours of interviews and source material than we did navigating the 800,000-plus square feet of the massive structure we came to refer to as the “SS Globe.” Time and again we found ourselves walking in circles or emerging through the wrong exit or making our way down the up escalator. (In truth, the escalator was often non-operational, so that worked in our favor.)
In our defense, even the Globe’s former editor, Marty Baron, quipped that he communicated with the Spotlight team by e-mail in part because he had a hard time locating the Spotlight offices, which were tucked away on the mezzanine level of the building.
Our saving grace was the generosity of spirit of the good people who worked there. We were constantly being directed, redirected, and even escorted by the industrious crew of that mighty ship. Their contribution was all the more notable because we had been clearly identified not only as snoopy Hollywood screenwriters but also as unrepentant fans of both the Yankees and Phillies.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.