Utahns are divided on Smart deal

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — A new poll shows Utahns are split over whether Ed and Lois Smart made the right decision to sign a book and movie deal.

The Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates, asked 412 residents whether they agreed with the Smarts' decision to write a book and sign the rights to a made-for-TV movie based on their daughter Elizabeth's abduction.

Forty-nine percent of the respondents strongly or somewhat agreed with the decision, while 41 percent strongly or somewhat disagreed. Nine percent were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of 5 percent.

"We knew whether we did or didn't (agree to a book and movie deal), we'd have people on both sides of the fence," Ed Smart said. "People that are unhappy … what can I say? If we had not gone forward, what would have come out is something we wouldn't have been proud of. I'm saddened to hear people are that way, but that's the way it's been through the whole thing. You're not going to please everyone."

Ed and Lois Smart have been in Halifax the past three days on the set of the movie being filmed for CBS, "The Elizabeth Smart story." The Smarts are scheduled to leave Halifax today. Filming is scheduled to be completed in seven days.

Ed said the time he spent on the movie set was emotional for him.

"It was hard to sit there (and watch filming)," he said. "At times I could not stand to sit there. After six to eight takes it was impossible to sit without getting a knot in my stomach."

But the Smarts said they are pleased with what they've seen. The movie is being told from the point of view of Ed and Lois and will not depict everything that happened during the nine-month ordeal, Smart said.

"It can't, it's just a two-hour movie," he said.

But the film accomplishes the goal of portraying the emotions Ed and Lois went through during those nine months.

"It certainly portrayed the idea," Ed Smart said, which was a key factor for the Smarts in choosing a producer for the movie.

There were "little things," as Smart called them, that had to be changed for the movie. For example, Mary Katherine hid her head under her blanket after Elizabeth was taken from their room. But in the movie, the actress playing her does not do that so the emotion on her face can be shown.