Fan Fare

Tom Cruise tipped to play film version of John Edwards

The tale of John Edwards’  personal and political downfall will be coming to a movie theater near you.

But who will play the disgraced politician?

Aaron Sorkin, best known for penning the hit White House drama series “The West Wing” has bought the rights to the book penned by Andrew Young — the former aide to the Democratic presidential hopeful throughout his affair with Rielle Hunter.

Sorkin described  Young’s  book “The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’ Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down” as a “first-hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up.”

The entertainment and political world is already agog with speculation on who will land the role of the former golden boy of Democratic politics.

Tom Cruise, who bears a resemblance to Edwards,  Dennis Quaid, George Clooney and British actor Michael Sheen are among the early front-runners in the eyes of the celebrity media.

But it is Cruise — also a one-time golden boy whose image has slipped in the past few years — who is emerging as the favorite.  Cruise is seen as having the charm, the smile and the acting skills to pull off  the role.

Late night gets political as Leno, O’Brien and Letterman look to the future

Conan O’Brien’s departure from NBC’s was ugly from the start, but now that it’s over, and Jay Leno is about to reclaim “The Tonight Show,” who has come out looking like the bad guy? This is important because if Leno and O’Brien end up competing against each other in the same time slot (with O’Brien on Fox or another network), how the public views each of them could affect their ratings. Leno himself has acknowledged he has been getting bad press as a result of the shakeup, with fellow talk show hosts David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Rosie O’Donnell accusing him of pushing out O’Brien. But judging by a poll of 65,000 respondents at celebrity website PopEater, the controversy doesn’t seem to have hurt Leno that much. Forty-four percent of respondents said they would watch Leno over O’Brien if the two were to go head-to-head in the 11:35 p.m. time slot, with only 33 percent opting for O’Brien. Leno enjoys the advantage of having reigned as the top-rated late night talk show host from 1995 until he gave up “The Tonight Show” in May 2009. After he left, David Letterman’s “Late Show” on CBS climbed to the top of the heap. Can Leno reclaim some of those viewers from Letterman when he returns to “The Tonight Show”? Letterman has launched a nasty campaign against Leno, mocking him every chance he gets on his show. Meanwhile, Leno has tried to take the high road, calling O’Brien a “great guy” during his show Monday. But of late he has fired back at Letterman during his monologues. With Letterman “going negative,” and Leno having given what amounted to a speech on Monday with his side of the story, this late night war has turned into something like a political campaign. For his part, O’Brien has ravaged NBC during his monologues, and he has never returned Leno’s favor by also calling him a “great guy.” Despite the hipster “I’m with Coco” campaign that has emerged, especially online, in support of O’Brien, his $32.5 million payout may hurt his image. True, we are in the age of corporate executives getting away with million dollar bonuses after their own failures, and Conan has scored sympathy for securing money for his staff. But wouldn’t we all like to walk away with say, $30 million, after seven months of poor ratings, weak reviews and (to use one of O’Brien’s jokes) not even a new haircut? In a PopEater poll, only 28 percent of respondents said they feel sorry for O’Brien now that he has received his huge payout, and 38 percent said they never did. With none of the talk show hosts seeming to have a monopoly on public sympathy, they may want all want to work harder on their campaign skills, because this new age for the talk show arena looks to be as cut-throat as ever.

(Additional writing by Christine Kearney)

from Global News Journal:

A reminder that Greece was not always democratic

Visitors to Greece's capital these days cannot escape the fact that a general election is on he way.  But it is not just the constant discussion on television and the excited newspaper headlines about a U.S.-style debate between front runners that lets you know.

Peppered across the city are political stalls, open for the public to come in and be persuaded to vote on Oct. 4 for whichever party is hosting them. The style ranges from a bench and chairs manned by two ageing communists in the northern suburbs to a rather slick structure in Athen's central Syndagma Square touting the worth  of the ruling conservative New Democracy party. For some reason the latter was blaring out The Clash's "Rocking the Casbah" on a recent sunny morning.

It is all very frothy and something of a celebration of democracy in the city which, after all, invented it.

Which is why a quieter, almost unnoticed gallery on the corner of Syndagma is offering something all the more poignant -- a reminder that it was not that long ago that such expressions of democracy would be met with batons, water cannons and even tanks.

"Mikis Theodorakis: The Composer - The Politician - The Thinker" is a temporary exhibition funded by the Greek parliament to honour one of the country's greatest living artists and an icon of left-wing resistance.

Best known to the world at large for composing the music for Michael Cacoyannis' 1960s film "Zorba the Greek" -- now almost a Greek anthem -- Theodorakis has a huge and respected body of work covering some 60 years, from operas to song cycles, ballets and symphonies. Among his film themes are those for Sidney Lumet's "Serpico" and Costa-Gavras' "State of Siege".

These are all celebrated with due reverence at the exhibition, including displays of many strangely ancient-looking  record album covers. But in the current political climate, it is the politics which catches the eye.

from Tales from the Trail:

A Jonas Brother for President?

Nick Jonas, the youngest of the world famous Jonas Brothers singing trio, told a National Press Club audience on Monday he's "always had this dream of becoming president one day."

The 16-year-old singer, songwriter and actor was in Washington to raise awareness about type 1 diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with in 2005. Earlier this year, he met President Obama as part of his diabetes work.

In an interview with Reuters, Jonas said his own presidential aspirations were not entirely a joke.

"As much as I joke about it and kind of say it to get a laugh, it is somewhat serious. I don't know if it will happen," he said.

If he goes to college, he said he would "probably study English and then political science because I'm interested in it." At the moment, he's touring with his band and will soon start filming the movie "Camp Rock 2" with his brothers.

Jonas has plenty of time to think about his future. The U.S. Constitution requires the president be at least 35 years old.

For more Reuters political news, click here.

Fran Drescher looks to graduate from “Nanny” to U.S. Senate

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Actress Fran Drescher, former star of television sitcom “The Nanny”,  has thrown her hat into the  ring as a contender to replace Hillary Clinton as U.S. senator for New York, joining an illustrious list of stars who have sought to make the switch from show business to the political stage. 

Drescher, 51,  is a New York woman through and through, and she has the accent to prove it. Born in Queens, she is known for broadcasting the accent native to that borough of New York on the 1990s show “The Nanny.”      But Drescher is more than just a pretty face and a nasal voice. The actress has survived uterine cancer and earlier this year she was appointed to a U.S. State Department envoy program and toured Eastern Europe to talk about health issues.  Last year, she created a charity called the Cancer Schmancer Movement after her recent battle with the disease.  Drescher told People magazine  that when she was on the lecture circuit for the State Department she was often asked about a future in politics.  “It was one of the single most-asked questions: When are you going to run?  Only second to: Is that your real voice?,” Drescher told the celebrity magazine. 

American politics has a full cast of former actors, from “Law & Order” star Fred Thompson, who ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination this year, to action movie star-turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the late President Ronald Reagan, who started out as an actor.

But Drescher has some heavyweight rivals wanting to fill the vacancy left by Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of State in Barack Obama’s new administration.  Caroline Kennedy, daughter of  assassinated former President John F. Kennedy, is said to be interested and other names have included New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and even former President Bill Clinton.

 New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, will appoint someone for the position.

 Do actors and movie stars make good politicians? What do you think?

Does Madonna fuel controversy for her fans or for herself?

Sex, religion, now politics. Madonna, true to style, has kicked off her world concert tour “Sticky & Sweet” with controversy by juxtaposing images of Adolf Hitler with John McCain, the Republican senator running for president alongside Democratic Senator Barack Obama and with Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe. Obama was named in a sequence with Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon and Al Gore.  ”Outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive,” said McCain’s camp.

Madonna, who turned 50 this month, is listed as one of the world’s most successful female recording artists of all time, having sold over 200 million records in a career spanning 25 years.  Do you think she fuels controversy to keep fans coming back for more or is it a personal mission for The Material Girl? 

Does Russian conductor risk Western ire?

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has long been a darling of the West, and is currently serving as principal conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra. It will be fascinating to see whether, following his highly politicized decision to lead a performance of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich amid the damaged buildings of South Ossetia’s Tskhinvali this week, that popularity wavers.

The charismatic musician’s actions will appeal to many Russians, who blame Georgia for sparking the crisis in the Caucasus by seeking to re-take the breakaway enclave and for shelling the regional capital. By likening the attack to the 9/11 strikes on the United States, Gergiev only upped the stakes.

Much of the rest of the world believes Russia is the villain of the conflict, leaving Gergiev, an ethnic Ossetian, open to a backlash in western capitals where he is used to red carpets and royal treatment.

Music and politics have often  gone hand in hand, of course, and we need look no further than Shostakovich as proof. His Seventh Symphony, which Gergiev performed on Thursday, is seen as a symbol in Russia of Leningrad’s defiance before the Nazi siege during World War II.

London’s Times newspaper said he had “associated his musical brilliance with Moscow’s military bullying,” but its criticism ended there and the editorial went on to conclude that the West must not ostracize him over his actions.