Filmmaker George Butler wants his friends to know he's very much alive, despite a premature obituary on 'The Charlie Rose Show' this week.
During Mr Rose's annual New Year's Eve tribute on the US public television network PBS to notable figures who during the year, he included Mr Butler, whose 1977 film 'Pumping Iron' featured a then-unknown bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger. The screen even flashed a Butler tombstone, 1943-2008.
The PBS show had confused him with another George Butler, a longtime jazz record executive who signed Wynton Marsalis, who died 9 April.
What is odd about the mistake is that Mr Rose and Mr Butler are old friends through Mr Rose's first wife, meeting shortly after they graduated from college in North Carolina.
Mr Butler, who lives in Holderness, NH and is making a film on Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, did not see his obit but learned about it when a fellow filmmaker called. He found out that some friends in New York were even planning a wake.
'I am bemused,' he said. 'Charlie did a great job in retracting the huge error. Still, it's very disconcerting.'
At least he was in good company, Mr Butler said, noting that he was featured with actor Paul Newman, US political presenter Tim Russert and columnist William F Buckley. A contrite Mr Rose was on the phone with him three times on New Year's Day to apologise, he said.
Mr Rose, who did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking comment, apologised at the opening of Thursday's show.
'The George Butler who is my friend is alive and well and living in New Hampshire,' Mr Rose said. 'We apologise to him and his friends, and look forward to having him on the program in the new year.'
