When Life Imitates Art

Mikhail Gorbachev probably doesn’t realize just how much help he got from Ted Turner in fending off last summer’s coup d’etat. Addressing independent filmmakers in Santa Monica, Calif., the hyperactive Atlantan informed a stunned audience that his decision to present Gone With the Wind in Soviet theaters changed the course of history. “It’s a strong antiwar film,” explained Turner. “I just think it had something to do with the fact that people there chose not to have a massive civil war.”