Movie inaccuracy irks Sen. McCain

The movie “Zero Dark Thirty” suggests the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques led the U.S. to Osama bin Laden. Sen. John McCain watched the movie Monday night and says it left him sick – because it’s wrong.

McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years enduring brutal treatment by his North Vietnamese captors during the Vietnam War, has insisted that the waterboarding of al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, did not provide information that led to the bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

Yet the movie, of copy of which McCain said he received Monday, indicates that’s how the United States found the al-Qaida leader. The filmmakers fell for it hook, line and sinker, McCain, R-Ariz., said Tuesday.

McCain has said he opposes waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, and any form of torture tactics.

“I do not believe they are necessary to our success in our war against terrorists, as the advocates of these techniques claim they are,” he said.

Beauty queen must pay $5 million

A beauty queen who claimed this year’s Miss USA contest was fixed has been ordered to pay the pageant organization $5 million for defamation.

In a decision signed last week, an arbitrator found that the comments from Miss Pennsylvania USA Sheena Monnin were false, harmful and malicious. Monnin had alleged that the five finalists had been selected in advance of the pageant’s live telecast.

Monnin’s allegations on Facebook and NBC’s “Today” show cost the pageant a $5 million fee from a potential 2013 sponsor, the arbitrator, Theodore Katz, said.

Carter has historical ‘Les Miz’ tie

Actress Helena Bonham Carter apparently shares more with Victor Hugo than just a role in the film based on his novel.

A study by genealogy website Ancestry.com reveals Victor Hugo was a political colleague of a cousin of the 46-year-old actress. Carter stars as Madame Thenardier in the upcoming musical “Les Miserables.” The film is an adaptation of the stage musical based on Hugo’s 1862 book.

<p>Ancestry.com says French financier and politician Achille Fould was Carter’s first cousin five times removed. He served with Hugo in the post-revolutionary French government in the 1840s. Fould was minister of finance; Hugo was in the constitutional and legislative assembly.

The birthday bunch

Country singer Little Jimmy Dickens is 92. Actress Cicely Tyson is 79. Actor Tim Reid is 68. Singer Janie Fricke is 65. Actress Jennifer Beals is 49. Actress Alyssa Milano is 40. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is 32.