(Taken from Roger Ebert's web page)<P><BR>Q. I recently took my 10-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter to see "Citizen Kane," which they loved. They were unnaturally alert during the scene in which Kane throws a party celebrating the hiring of talented reporters from his rival newspaper, and trots out a line of chorus girls. Whereupon everyone bursts into a song, "There is a man, a certain man ... " After a few lines, my kids were mouthing the words. I was incredulous until they told me these were the lyrics to a song by the White Stripes, "The Union Forever," on the hit album "White Blood Cells." While the tune is utterly different, the lyrics are exactly those in the film and they are bracketed by other significant lines from the "Kane" script. Yet the CD liner copy reads, "All songs written and performed by the White Stripes." "Citizen Kane" is neither mentioned nor credited. Is this flagrant, unpunished plagiarism, or did Jack and Meg White receive special dispensation from the Orson Welles estate? <P>Phil Freshman, <P>St. Louis Park, Minn.<P>A. Early in the White Stripes song, the lyrics say "sure I'm C.F.K.," which would be Charles Foster Kane. Later this dialogue is quoted from the screenplay: "I'm not interested in gold mines, oil wells, shipping or real estate." (In the movie Kane adds, "I think I might like to run a newspaper.") The song then quotes more dialogue by Kane: "What would I liked to have been? Everything you hate."<P>Here are some of the purloined lyrics:<P>there is a man a certain man<BR>and for the poor you may be sure<BR>that he'll do all he can.<BR>who is this one?<BR>[whose favorite son?]<BR>just by his action<BR>has the traction<BR>magnates<BR>on the run?<BR>who likes to smoke?<BR>enjoys a joke? <P>A contact tells me Warner Bros., which now owns the DVD rights, believes the lyrics were lifted from "Citizen Kane" without permission, and the studio's legal department is investigating.
