Bill Murray has sparked backlash against journalist Bob Woodward after confronting him over alleged lies he told about the late John Belushi in his 1984 biography,

Groundhog Day star Murray, 74, clashed with Woodward, 81, at a Washington event Sunday – one day after trashing the writer for his book Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi in a candid chat on the Joe Rogan Experience.

Murray had said of Woodward – who alongside fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, uncovered President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal: ‘When I read Wired, the book written by what’s-his-name, Bob Woodward, about Belushi, I read like five pages and I went, “Oh my God, they framed Nixon.”

 ‘I went, “Oh my god, if he writes about my friend that I’ve known for half of my adult life — talking to the people of the outer, outer circle — what the hell could they have done to Nixon?”‘

‘If he did this to Belushi, what he did to Nixon is probably soiled for me too.’ 

The pair’s confrontation took place at a screening of documentary Becoming Katharine Graham at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with the spat posted to X by Washington Post journalist, Ben Terris.

Bill Murray (left) has sparked backlash against journalist Bob Woodward (2nd right) after confronting him over alleged lies he told about the late John Belushi in his 1984 biography (pictured Sunday) 

Belushi – who died from a drug overdose in 1982 aged 33 – is pictured 1970s on SNL with Murray, Jane Curtain, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman and Dan Aykroyd

Groundhog Day star Murray, 74, clashed with Woodward, 81, at a Washington event Sunday – one day after trashing the writer for his book Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi

Terris wrote: ‘Bill Murray and Bob Woodward had words about Woodward’s Belushi book tonight at the Kennedy Center. It was a little tense.’

The New York Times also noted the pair had a ‘quarrel’ but did not elaborate on what was actually said.

DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Bill Murray and Bob Woodward for comment.

Fans took to X to praise Murray for taking on Woodward, writing: ‘Way to go Bill. Woodward is a Democrat shill.

‘Go get him Bill!

‘Give him hell, Bill.   

‘Love it!!! Bill doesn’t play around! 

‘I just learned of this beef last night from 50 years ago and all of a sudden we have real confrontation? wild. 

‘Oh! Hey scumbag.” Wish I could have heard it.

‘Bob Woodward is a proven liar and anything he has ever said or written on any subject should be taken with a definite of salt!’

The pair met at a screening of documentary Becoming Katharine Graham at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with the spat posted to X by journalist, Ben Terris

Murray slated Woodward’s journalism on Joe Rogan, saying: ‘I went, “Oh my god, if he writes about my friend that I’ve known for half of my adult life… what the hell could they have done to Nixon?”‘

Woodward (pictured 2017)  and fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, uncovered President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal

Fans took to X to laud Murray for taking on Woodward

Belushi suffered a fatal overdose on cocaine and heroin in his private bungalow at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles aged just 33 in March 1982. 

Belushi, best known for 1980 film The Blues Brothers, had been struggling with drug addiction for years before he died. 

Elsewhere in his podcast chat, Murray lambasted Woodward’s sources for the book, saying they were ‘far outside the inner circle’ and resulted in a ‘criminal’ and ‘cruel’ tome.

‘Belushi made people’s careers possible’ he said, ‘Mine would be one of them. There’s a lot of people that slept on John Belushi’s couch. 

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‘There’s a lot of people that stayed for free at his house until they made it in New York. And I’m one. He died in an unfortunate way, but man, he was still the best stage actor I ever saw.’

Murray said he had declined to contribute to Wired as ‘something smelled funny’, saying: ‘I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It went exactly where I thought it was going. Even worse than I thought it was going. Just the тιтle alone, it was cold.’

He claimed jealousy played a role in the writing of the book, saying: ‘The most famous person to come from Wheaton, Illinois, is John Belushi. The second-most-famous person is Harold Red Grange, the football player. And the third-most-famous person to come from Wheaton, Illinois, is Bob Woodward.’

‘So there’s all my controversy for today,” he concluded. That’s all I got. I got a bone about that one. You know, I got a bone for Woodward, ever since I read those five pages.’

Murray sparked up a friendship with Blues Brothers star Belushi in 1974 when he joined The National Lampoon Radio Hour.

Belushi was a Hollywood icon who is best known for his role in 1980’s The Blues Brothers (pictured with co-star Dan Aykroyd)

Belushi suffered a fatal overdose on cocaine and heroin in his private bungalow at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles aged just 33 in March 1982 – pictured 1978

Belushi’s widow Judy Belushi-Pisano – who was interviewed by Woodward for the book – slammed Wired, saying it ‘was only about drugs and madness, and it wasn’t even accurate’

Murray would go onto join Season 2 of Saturday Night Live with Belushi.

His iconic Ghostbusters role as Peter Venkman  in 1984 was originally intended for Belushi, who died two years before its release. 

Belushi’s co-star and close friend Dan Aykroyd as well as his widow Judith Belushi Pisano were among those interviewed for Wired, but later slammed the book for its content.

In 1984 Aykroyd called Wired ‘pulpy and trashy’ while Pisano said it ‘was only about drugs and madness, and it wasn’t even accurate.’

Pisano later released her own book, Samurai Widow in 1990 to counter the ‘exploitative’ Wired 

Aykroyd said: ‘[Woodward] spoke with me about an hour and a half, and you know there’s things in [the book] I don’t remember saying to him, and first of all, the book, I’ve skimmed through excerpts of it, it’s really pulpy and trashy, it’s not well-written at all, and Bob Woodward…here was a man with a very respectable career.’ 

‘All the President’s Men, The Brethren, and his research and newspaper work – and all of a sudden he does a book called The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi, what a kind of a cheap, you know… 

‘He’s just stepping down into that seedy world, and I think he’s really avoided many issues in the book. He certainly has avoided the issue of what a funbag John was, what a great guy he was, what a warm, humorous, really, you know…concerned, and bright, educated, well-read individual this guy was. How did he get to be so successful? 

‘He was smart, you know, he wasn’t just given his break, and he had to work for what he had, and Woodward completely skirts that, and it’s a depressing, sordid, tragic book.’

Pisano later released her own book, Samurai Widow in 1990 to counter the ‘exploitative’ Wired followed by Belushi: A Biography with Tanner Colby in 2003.

Wired was later adapted into a critically panned 1989 feature film, in which Belushi was played by Michael Chiklis and Woodward by J.T. Walsh. 

Cathy Smith, the woman who injected Belushi with the fatal combination of drugs, was initially charged with second degree murder but made a plea deal with prosecutors that convicted her of manslaughter.  

Smith was a back-up singer and groupie who was well-known in Belushi’s group of rock and roll friends. 

She spent 15 months in prison for giving him the drugs then became a legal secretary and lived quietly in British Columbia, Canada, until her death aged 73 in 2020.

Woodward (right) and Bernstein became legends in the world of journalism after they exposed Watergate – a sordid political scandal that involved the Nixon administration and his re-election campaign (pictured 1970s)

She was initially charged with second degree murder but made a plea deal with prosecutors that convicted her of manslaughter.

Woodward and Bernstein became legends in the world of journalism after they broke Watergate – a sordid political scandal that involved the Nixon administration and his re-election campaign.

Thanks to the pair’s investigative reporting, the true extent of Watergate was uncovered, and Nixon was ultimately forced to resign from office in 1974.

The Watergate scandal stemmed from a break in at the Democratic National Committee office housed inside in 1972.

The men who broke in were later connected to President Richard Nixon, and it was revealed they were attempting to steal documents and to wiretap phones.

Woodward and Bernstein’s book about the scandal, All the President’s Men became a bestseller and was later turned into a 1976 movie starring Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein.

They also won a Pulitzer Prize.