Oliver Stone, saying he was exhausted from rushing the production of his new movie, "W.," in time for its release three weeks before the election, took some time out Wednesday morning to talk to Countdown to Crawford. We appreciate it.
In an interview, Stone said that he poured "my heart and soul" into the movie, trying to be "empathetic" in his portrayal of George W. Bush. Describing a hum of 1,000 people who turned out to the New York premier last night in New York, Stone said he got many compliments, but not from his mother.
"She's a Republican," he quipped of Jacqueline Goddet Stone, who met his father, Lou Stone, in France when the young American was serving as an aide to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. "She didn't really like the movie."
In the movie, Laura Bush, played by Elizabeth Banks, is portrayed as a soft, sympathetic, supportive wife. President Bush has acknowledged over the years that it was his wife who gave him the ultimatum to give up drinking, saying, "It's Jim Beam or me." But Stone opted to make the decision to stop drinking a religious conversion by Bush into born-again Christianity.
"You can’t go off his autobiography," Stone said, suggesting Bush's own account was unreliable. "I wanted to show in Laura a person who is supportive of him. She does express concern. She coaxed him to quit, but she's not a confrontative woman."
As for Condi Rice, the portrayal by Thandie Newton suggests the ultimate sycophant, someone who nods at the president's every utterance and makes no impact of her own on policy.
Stone said he came to that conclusion after reading Bob Woodward's books about the first-term Bush White House, and stands by the portrait.
"I would call it an enabler," he said. "She was overrun by [former Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and [Vice President Dick] Cheney." Besides, said Stone, "If she had stood up more, he wouldn’t have liked her."
To prove his point, Stone alluded to one telling scene in the movie. The president, played by Josh Brolin (seen above at the film's New York opening), tells Cheney, played with finesse by Richard Dreyfuss, not to talk so much in public meetings. "I’m the decider," Bush tells Cheney in "W."
"His ego did not suffer other people," Stone explained.
Asked what's next for him, the director said he had passed on revisiting "Wall Street," his classic story of capitalist greed. As global financial markets continued their frenzied turmoil, he suggested a sequel "would be the same story, wouldn't it?"
It isn't that director Oliver Stone is trying to influence the Nov. 4 election. Really. It's just that his biopic on George W. Bush is due to be released Oct. 17, about three weeks before voters head to the polls.
In an interview last week with the Times of London, Stone said in advance of the release that his new movie portrays President Bush as, well, a character.
It's a comedy only in the sense of tragic comedy. You laugh in your mind because Bush is a goof-ball, because he's awkward, but at the same time he has a stubbornness, a John Wayne ethos, an anger, an impatience, that make him fascinating. You may hate Wayne's politics, but you may well enjoy his company on screen.
The movie, starring Josh Brolin as George W. Bush and Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, is "a human portrait of a man, not meant to insult people who believe in what Bush believes in," said Stone, whose earlier works on "JFK" and "Nixon" stirred controversy. Brolin, he said, portrays Bush as "charming, which I think he is." Stone also compared Bush to his father, George H.W. Bush:
I think he (W.) is a wonderful salesman, charismatic to many people and he has a politician's ability to touch and reach, which his father never had. So he did outdo his father -- as a salesman.
Stone told The Times he's not sure the public will rush to the theaters to see a movie about an unpopular president, even though he tried to walk in the president's shoes. He explained:
It's my job ... if I'm dramatizing his life ... to step above my hate.
But enough of words. Here's the latest trailer leaking out of his studios.
For 31 years, the Kennedy Center has bestowed annual awards on actors, singers, musicians and other entertainers who have made lasting contributions to the performing arts. It is a singular Washington event, featuring dinner at the State Department, a reception at the White House and a gala black tie event at the Kennedy Center with an invite list that puts guests at the intersection of politics and Hollywood.
This year Ken Cen is honoring six people. Actor Morgan Freeman. Country singer George Jones. Choreographer Twyla Tharp. Musicians Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of the Who. And, drumroll, actress, singer and outspoken liberal activist Barbra Streisand.
Which means that Barbra will be feted at a reception at the White House by a president she has derided. That she will attend the gala in a box with the president and first lady whose tenure she has worked hard -- with concerts and contributions -- to end. And that presumably she will be accompanied by her husband, James Brolin, whose son Josh stars in a soon-to-be-released Oliver Stone biopic on the president called "W."
Several years ago, in a memo to Democrats titled "Nice
Guys Finish Last or Where We Go From Here," Streisand said of Bush, "Not only is he poisoning our air and water -- he's poisoning our
political system as well." She asked "How could such a destructive man be so popular with the American people?"
Yesterday the star who is pals with the Clintons said she was "humbled and thrilled" to be honored by the Kennedy Center.
Contrary to our earlier post today, speculating on whether the president might actually enjoy the anti-terrorism speeches in Oliver Stone's new biopic "W.," the White House says President Bush has "no plans" to see the movie.
White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said she's not sure that Bush has seen any of Stone's earlier films, which includes "JFK" and "World Trade Center."
One thing she's clear about: Oliver Stone has no credibility to chronicle the Bush presidency.
"Oliver Stone is an accurate historian like Gilligan was an accurate navigator," she said.
That would be Gilligan, as in "Gilligan's Island," the CBS sitcom from the 1960s about seven castaways shipwrecked on an abandoned island. The show featured Bob Denver, above, playing Gilligan, the hapless navigator.
This is one Oliver Stone movie that George W. Bush might actually like.
At least that's the impression you could get looking at the latest footage to leak out of the set for the filming of Stone's biopic, "W.," which is due out in the fall. In it, the president is seen pushing his agenda for vigilance against terrorism.
Of course elsewhere in the film, as we know from the trailer, Bush (played by Josh Brolin) is portrayed as a boozing, womanizing good-for-nothing.
No telling who will show up at the White House when the president's out of town.
Today it was the Jonas Brothers -- Nick, Kevin and Joe -- a boy band from Wyckoff, N.J., who has been nominated for MTV video of the year for their "Burnin' Up" clip.
In Washington for a concert, the three brothers stopped at the White House to tape a public service announcement urging kids to get outdoors and stay active. With Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne at their sides, the trio pitched the wonders of the National Parks, of which the White House is one.
Afterward, the three got a briefing on diabetes. Nick, now 15, was diagnosed with the disease when he was 13. Then the brothers were peppered with questions by White House reporters who did not get the call to Crawford.
Asked how they were voting, Kevin, who turns 21 the day after the election, and Joe, who just turned 19, said they were not in a position to say.
"As a band, we are not in a place to endorse any of those who campaign, but we, me and Joe, are both of voting age, so we do endorse voting, getting to know the issues, learning about the candidates," said Kevin, according to an account in the Washington Times.
Joe added that neither candidate had approached them for an endorsement but said it would be "an honor." Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said several times that his preteen daughters are big JoBros fans.
White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said she did not know if the president, in Crawford, knew what he was missing.
Eight-year-old Ethan Ross could have told him. "I'm flipped out," he said. "They're cool."
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press
It's sort of a given in American politics that Hollywood tilts left.
After all, it is located on the Left Coast.
And a lot of its denizens -- Barbra Streisand and Alec Baldwin come to mind -- famously threatened to leave the country if George W. Bush was elected. Twice.
But now comes word from the White House that several actresses have agreed to serve the Bush administration, albeit in a feel-good cause on one of those commissions that any White House uses to reward its social friends.
So it is not that surprising that American Idol Jordin Sparks and Bo Derek of "10" fame have been tapped by the White House to serve on a commission that encourages volunteerism.
Called the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation, the group tries to make good on President Bush's call, just after 9/11, for Americans to give two years or 4,000 hours of their lives to volunteer service. The council members' nickname: ambassadors for service.
Looking at the list of appointees announced this week, it seems not much of a secret how one gets to be an ambassador for service. Be a philanthropist (Evern Cooper Epps of Georgia). Be a NASCAR driver (Kasey Kahne of Washington), a songwriter (Michael "I Will Be Here For You" Smith of Tennessee) or a football player (Daniel Wuerffel of Florida.)
Or be an actress who uses her given name, Janine Gauntt, of "Northern Exposure" fame, otherwise known as Janine Turner.
-- Johanna Neuman
Photos: Jordin Sparks, left, by Kevin Winter/Getty Images and Bo Derek by John Derek/NBC.
Oliver Stone has just released the trailer for his movie about the Bush presidency, starring Josh Brolin as W., Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Cheney and Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush.
Called "W," the movie takes the angle -- well trod by other armchair psychologists -- that the Bush presidency can best be understood as a conflict between the current president, Bush 43, and his father, Bush 41, played by James Cromwell.
In the scene featured on the trailer, 41 says to 43, "If I remember correctly, you didn't like the sporting goods job. Working in the investment firm wasn't for you either. Or the oil rig job. You didn't exactly finish up with flying colors in the Air National Guard, junior.... What are you cut out for?"
"The Dark Knight," an allegory about evil featuring the late Australian actor Heath Ledger as the Joker, is breaking all kinds of box office records.
Holy smokes, Batman, the movie is also being hailed in conservative quarters as a tribute to George W. Bush for prosecuting a war against terrorism despite great skepticism from the public.
In today's Wall Street Journal, Andrew Klavan discusses "What Bush and Batman Have In Common." His thoughts:
There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.
Slavan does take a shot at the president, noting that the movie does a compelling job of selling the Bush policy that the president himself "cannot seem to articulate for beans."
But other commentators see Cheney in the lead role. Here's Spencer Ackerman:
The thought of Vice President Dick Cheney in a form-fitting bat costume might be too much for most people to bear. But the concepts of security and danger presented in Christopher Nolan's new Batman epic, "The Dark Knight," align so perfectly with those of the office of the vice president that David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff and former legal counsel, might be an uncredited script doctor.
Oliver Stone, the video-armed thorn in the side of conservative causes, is turning his camera on the president.
In Stone's new movie, Josh Brolin stars as the president, Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Cheney and Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush. My colleague John Horn visited the set in Louisiana and writes about it in today's Los Angeles Times. You can read Horn's piece here.
Called "W," the movie takes the angle -- well trod by other arm-chair psychologists -- that the Bush presidency can best be understood as a conflict between the current president, Bush 43, and his father, Bush 41, played by James Cromwell.
Patrick Goldstein, whose new Los Angeles Times blog the Big Picture is stirring notice in Hollywood, has also blogged on it, here.
James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman are reporters in The Times' Washington bureau. Between the two of them, they have covered the White House, diplomacy, military affairs, the environment, international economics, trade and Congress. They have both spent time in Crawford, Texas.
It's sort of a given in American politics that Hollywood tilts left.
