József Antal Eszterhás (, commonly known in America as Joe Eszterhas born November 23, 1944) is a Hungarian-American writer. He attended Ohio University. He wrote the screenplays for the films Flashdance, Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct and Showgirls. His books include American Rhapsody, Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith and an autobiography titled Hollywood Animal. Early life Eszterhás was born in Csákánydoroszló, a village in Hungary to Roman Catholic parents, Mária (née Bíró) and István Eszterhás. Eszterhás was born during World War II, and lived as a child in a refugee camp in Allied-occupied Austria. The family eventually moved to New York City, and then to immigrant neighborhoods in Cleveland, where Eszterhas spent most of his childhood. Eszterhas learned, at age 45, that his father had concealed his World War II collaboration in Hungary’s Arrow Cross Party government after the German occupation of Hungary and that he had "organized book burnings and had produced anti-Semitic propaganda." Eszterhas later described his father’s anti-Semitic pamphlets as “like the Hungarian version of Mein Kampf.” After this discovery, he cut his father out of his life entirely, never reconciling before his father's death in 2001. Journalist and book author Eszterhas was a senior editor for Rolling Stone from 1971 to 1975. He became a National Book Award nominee for his nonfiction work Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse in 1974. Eszterhas was the subject of a lawsuit for his reporting for The Plain Dealer. Cantrell v. Forest City Publishing (1974) is one of only two false light cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. As a reporter for The Plain Dealer, Eszterhas had covered the aftermath of the collapse of a bridge across the Ohio River. The article included a supposed interview of the widow of one of the fatal victims of the collapse. Months after the accident, he and a photographer visited the home of Margaret Cantrell. She was not home, but he talked to the children as the photographer took photos. His Sunday magazine feature focused on the family's poverty and contained several inaccuracies. Eszterhas had made it seem as though he had spoken to her, describing her mood and attitude in the story. Cantrell filed suit for invasion of privacy, and won a $60,000 judgment in her favor. The decision was overturned in the Court of Appeals on First Amendment grounds, but in the end, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the original judgment in her favor.