The FBI Celebrity Files is a one-hour documentary which attempts to answer questions about the voluminous celebrity files gathered under J. Edgar Hoover during the height of the Cold War.
The documentary originally aired in the USA on The History Channel in 2000. It originally aired in South Africa on DStv's The History Channel on Wednesday 31 October 2007, at 18h00.
It aired on DStv's Crime and Investigation Network on Monday 25 February 2008, at 20h40.
Repeats
Tuesday 26 February: 02h40, 14h40
Saturday 1 March: 22h20
Sunday 2 March: 04h20, 16h20
Synopsis
What do Abbot and Costello, John Lennon, psychic Jean Dixon, George Carlin, Frank Sinatra and Jacques Cousteau all have in common? Each has an FBI file with his or her name on it.
Not because they committed a crime, but because J. Edgar Hoover had a hefty appetite for gossip and an inflexible moral and political code that put celebrities who didn't subscribe to it at the mercy of the most powerful investigative organisation in America.
But why were J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI so curious about the actions and lives of Hollywood's most famous celebrities that they traced and followed their every movement?
The FBI Celebrity Files tries to answer these and other questions about the voluminous celebrity files gathered under J. Edgar Hoover during the height of the Cold War and the turbulent decades of the 1960s and 1970s.
The show examines the relationship between the country's entertainers and rebels, and the elite law enforcement officers of the America’s most powerful investigative organisation.