Forty years later, Garfunkel is still bitter after all these years

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:15:00 +0000

Art Garfunkel, 71 years old and still reeling decades later from the breakup of the musical act that made him a household name, is now saying that one of the reasons Simon & Garfunkel broke up was because of Mike Nichols' 1970 film adaptation of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22." In the late 1960s, he says, the two were cast in the film, and while Garfunkel managed to hold onto his fourth-billing role, Simon ended up on the cutting room floor, reports the Guardian.

Garfunkel was speaking at the Paley Center for Media in New York last Wednesday, as part of a screening of Charles Grodin's 1969 Simon & Garfunkel documentary "Songs of America." According to the Hollywood Reporter, both the singer and Grodin implicated Nichols. Recall that Nichols featured Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" and "Scarborough Fair" in "The Graduate," his now-iconic 1967 film that won him an Oscar for best director.

"That was the beginning of their split-up," said Grodin. "You don't take Simon & Garfunkel and ask them to be in a movie and then drop one of their roles on them."

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Forty years later, Garfunkel is still bitter after all these years