1.
CU Irving and wife being interviewed (5 shots)
1.44


SOUND STARTS: "What about the fact...."



SOUND ENDS: "...... very unreal experience."



TRANSCRIPT: SEQ. 1: REPORTER: "What about the fact whether or not it's true that there is a deal in the wind? And what about the allegation that the Los Angeles Times that you have admitted that you never met Howard Hughes?"



SECOND REPORTER: "Will there be any comment on anything at this point?" (LAUGHTER)



IRVING: "Not till I have spoken to my attorney who advised me to say nothing"



REPORTER: "Mrs. Irving, how do you feel with it?"



MRS. IRVING. "(indistinct)".



REPORTER: "Are you going outside with the children?"



MRS. IRVING: "Well, one goes to school now."



REPORTER: "And are the children enjoying New York?"



MR. IRVING: "No". (LAUGHTER)



REPORTER: "Are you enjoying New York, Mrs. Irving?"



MRS. IRVING. "No, not much."



REPORTER: "Do you think you have material for a book on what's been happening to you?"



IRVING: "Undoubtedly the life of any man that's gone through this in the last month is material for another book."



REPORTER: "Have we been rough on you in the press, do you think?"



IRVING: "No, personally the press has not been rough on me, as far as I'm concerned."



REPORTER: "The situation has made us rough on you as an institution perhaps?"



IRVING: "No, I didn't even mean that. I just think as I've said many many times, the press is doing its job."



REPORTER: "When you see the paper reports, what goes through you mind? Is there any particular thing?"



IRVING: "Yes, I haven't got the slightest idea who they're writing about."



REPORTER: "Do you have a king of a sense of unreality bout this, like it's some kind of a fantasy, that this is a novel you are reading?"



IRVING: "Don't privilege him on that, it's not a novel I'm reading."



REPORTER: "But it's unreal?"



IRVING: "It's a very unreal situation."




Initials ES. 2254 ES. 2219



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The author of the alleged biography of United States millionaire recluse Howard Hughes, 41-year-old Clifford Irving, refused in a news Interview in New York on Friday (February 11) to comment on press reports that he had never actually met Hughes. Irving's lawyer earlier denied the wide-spread reports that he had admitted never meeting Hughes to collect material for the Book. The reports said he had admitted this earlier.

The news interview, in which Irving's 37-year-old wife Edith also took part, was held as a Federal Court continued investigations into allegation of fraud in connection with the unpublished biography. It was also the eve of the opening of another investigation, this time by a New York Country Grand Jury, into possible charges of larceny, perjury and forgery. Some of the allegations relate to a cheque for a quarter of a million pounds (sterling) which Irving was supposed to have given to Hughes -- but which was later cashed, Irving admitted, by his wife Edith.

SYNOPSIS: In New York on Friday, newsmen spoke to author Clifford Irving about his controversial alleged biography of United States millionaire recluse Howard Hughes.