Editing Gore Vidal (section)

===Hollywood===
[[File:Broogoldvidawild.jpg|thumb|upright|Vidal (second from right) supporting the [[1981 Writers Guild of America strike]]]]
In 1956, [[MGM]] hired Vidal as a screenwriter with a four-year employment contract. In 1958, the director [[William Wyler]] required a [[script doctor]] to rewrite the screenplay for [[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|''Ben-Hur'']] (1959), originally written by [[Karl Tunberg]]. As one of several script doctors assigned to the project, Vidal rewrote significant portions of the script to resolve ambiguities of character motivation, specifically to clarify the enmity between the Jewish protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur, and the Roman antagonist, Messala, who had been close boyhood friends. In exchange for rewriting the ''Ben-Hur'' screenplay, on location in Italy, Vidal negotiated the early termination (at the two-year mark) of his four-year contract with MGM.<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|301–307}}

36 years later, in the documentary film ''[[The Celluloid Closet (film)|The Celluloid Closet]]'' (1995), Vidal explained that Messala's failed attempt at resuming their homosexual, boyhood relationship motivated the ostensibly political enmity between Ben-Hur ([[Charlton Heston]]) and Messala ([[Stephen Boyd]]). Vidal said that Boyd was aware of the homosexual subtext to the scene and that the director, the producer and the screenwriter agreed to keep Heston ignorant of the subtext, lest he refuse to play the scene.<ref name="Palimpsest-1995" />{{RP|306}} In turn, on learning of that explanation, Heston said that Vidal had contributed little to the script of ''Ben-Hur''.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Commanding Presence: Actor Charlton Heston Sets His Epic Career in Stone – or At Least on Paper |author=Mick LaSalle |newspaper=The San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 2, 1995 |page=E1}}</ref> Despite Vidal's resolution of the character's motivations, the [[Screen Writers Guild]] assigned formal screenwriter-credit to Karl Tunberg, in accordance with the [[WGA screenwriting credit system]], which favored the "original author" of a screenplay, rather than the writer of the filmed screenplay.<ref>{{cite news |title=Gore Vidal, Aloof in Art and Life |author=Ned Rorem |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |date=December 12, 1999 |page=18S}}</ref>

Two plays, ''The Best Man: A Play about Politics'' (1960, made into a [[The Best Man (1964 film)|film]] in 1964) and ''Visit to a Small Planet'' (1955), were theater and movie successes. Vidal occasionally returned to the movie business, and wrote historically accurate teleplays and screenplays about subjects important to him. [[Billy the Kid (1989 film)|''Billy the Kid'']] (1989) is one, about [[William H. Bonney]], a gunman in the New Mexico territory [[Lincoln County War]] (1878), and later an outlaw in the U.S. Western frontier. Another is 1979's [[Caligula (film)|''Caligula'']] (based upon the life of the [[Roman Emperor]] [[Caligula]]),<ref name="Time-3-jan-1977">"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947822,00.html Show Business: Will the Real Caligula Stand Up?]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101022172027/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947822,00.html |date=October 22, 2010 }}, ''Time'', January 3, 1977.</ref> from which Vidal had his screenwriter credit removed because the producer, [[Bob Guccione]], the director, [[Tinto Brass]], and the leading actor, [[Malcolm McDowell]], rewrote the script to add extra sex and violence to increase its commercial appeal.

In the 1960s, Vidal migrated to Italy, where he befriended the film director [[Federico Fellini]], for whom he appeared in a cameo role in the film ''[[Roma (1972 film)|Roma]]'' (1972). He also appeared in the American television series ''[[Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman]]'' and in the films ''[[Bob Roberts]]'' (1992), a serio-comedy about a [[reactionary]] populist politician who manipulates youth culture to win votes; ''[[With Honors (film)|With Honors]]'' (1994), an [[Ivy league]] comedy-drama; ''[[Gattaca]]'' (1997), a science-fiction drama about [[genetic engineering]]; and ''[[Igby Goes Down]]'' (2002), a coming-of-age serio-comedy directed by his nephew, Burr Steers.